Pretty much title. I never got a full understanding of what gas is. Is it short for gasoline? Does it mean something else? Is it a solid, like oil? Or is it a gas, like… gas? What goes in my car and what runs my oven? Are they different? Are they the same? Is natural gas the same as oil…?
You get the idea, and I would love to finally understand what gas is. Thanks!
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These are all related. Millions of years ago, decomposing life forms (mostly plants like algae) didn’t fully decompose. Instead it got buried and over a long time, with plenty of heat and pressure, it turned into coal, crude oil, and natural gas. These are all fuels that we burn to release energy.
Natural gas is a gas that we extract and use for a variety of purposes including cooking and heating.
Crude oil is extracted and refined into other products. One of these products is gasoline (often shortened to gas) and used to fuel cars. Gas is a liquid and the name is completely unrelated to the state of matter. The name gasoline is derived from a brand name. it’s kinda like how we call pretty much all cellophane tape scotch tape.
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