If you’re wondering how much does a gallon of oil weigh, then you’ve come to the right place. We did the calculation for you. Check it out.
How Much Does a Gallon of Oil Weigh?
When answering how much a gallon of oil weighs, it is good to remember that different oil types weigh differently. Light and heavy oil weigh differently.
Outside factors like temperature also come into play when dealing with oil weights. Regular crude oil (light and heavy) weighs around 6.5 lbs per US gallon and 8.5 lbs per US gallon.
Calculating The Weight of Oil
If you are transporting oil, just knowing how much a gallon of oil weighs won’t just do it. You probably want to know how to calculate the weight of a gallon of oil.
To know the weight of a gallon of oil, you’ll need to know two things. These two are the density and temperature of the oil. There are measurements set up for this, the API and Specific Gravity.
API Gravity
API (American Petroleum Institute) Gravity is the process of measuring oil’s density. It helps measure the density of just about any petroleum product.
How it works is very simple, the higher the API gravity of oil or any other petroleum product, the lower its density, and vice-versa. So finding API Gravity is not that complicated. First, you’ll have to divide 141.5 by the specific gravity of the oil and then subtract 131.5.
Specific Gravity
With Specific Gravity, you get to measure the density of oil. To find the specific density of oil, you’ll need to divide the mass of oil by its volume and then divide the result by the density of water at the same temperature.
Once you have the Specific Gravity of oil, you can calculate its weight in pounds by multiplying it by the density of water in pounds per the United States gallon (lbs/US gal) at a specific temperature. In most cases, 60°F (15.6°C) is used as a base temperature for measurement.
For more fun questions from ILY Best, you can check out:
You can learn more specific gravity by watching “Specific Gravity – Fluids – Physics” down below:
