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Why do people living in the US use gas as a term for vehicle fuel (petrol/diesel)? (infosec.pub)

submitted 11 months ago by 0x4E4F@infosec.pub to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I mean, I could understand if they used natural gas as fuel for vehicles (which I know they don't), but they only use it in households. It makes no sense 🤷.

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[–] Zippy@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago (2 children)

What term do you use for gasoline? Has Europe assigned petrol for gasoline?

Petrol or petroleum is diesel or gasoline by definition. If you say or petrol in you tank you are basically saying put fuel in your tank without specifying what it is.

[–] 0x4E4F@infosec.pub 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah, we use petrol and diesel. Petrol is the refined stuff (as far as I know), diesel is the less refined stuff (ignition by compression, not spark). You say petrol for regular gasoline, diesel for the less refined stuff.

[–] Zippy@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ya both terms are a bit confusing. I think the refining levels are about the same other then diesel is done at a higher temp among other process. For automotive anyhow. There is a less refined process for bunker fuel or some off road applications but mostly shipping.

[–] 0x4E4F@infosec.pub 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So what do you use to distingush between regular gasoline and diesel?

[–] snowe@programming.dev 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Exactly that. Gasoline or diesel. Both different amounts of refinement of petroleum. This is the one case where I think Europe describes something weirdly. Petroleum is the raw product, not the final output.

[–] 0x4E4F@infosec.pub 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Well, wiki says gasoline and petrol are used interchangeably in English.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline

[–] snowe@programming.dev 4 points 11 months ago

My wife works in the industry, they do not refer to petroleum as gasoline until it is all the way downstream. Gas always refers to natural gas at the midstream point. If you are an end consumer then you have natural gas, gasoline, and diesel.

[–] Zippy@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

I wouldn't use Wiki as an official designation for terms but ya most people know what you mean. Diesel and gasoline are both petroleum products. Gas is short for gasoline but alone it can mean something else. Petro is slang for gasoline and most would know what you mean as well but anytime in the industry would not be sure if you said that.

[–] kuneho@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

checking in from an european country; for petrol, we say "benzin" and for diesel we either call it just "dízel(olaj)" or "gázolaj" (olaj -> oil, so they translate roughly to diesel-oil or gas-oil)

for the fuel that gas operated cars use we have the "autógáz" word, which means... well, car-gas