Relative prices of different liquids

OK, this is great (see below). What I want is a cleaner graph (a horizontal dotplot, please, instead of a *&^!@&*#@ 3-d color barplot), on the logarithmic scale (base 10, please), also including some other liquids of interest, such as fresh water (e.g., divide the total cost of maintaining the NYC water system divided by the total amount used each year), mercury, pig’s blood, olive oil, Coca-Cola, epoxy, liquid nitrogen, etc etc.

BloodInk.jpg

9 thoughts on “Relative prices of different liquids

  1. NYC tap water is billed at $21.14 per 1000 cubic feet, or .28 cents per gallon (not 28 cents, which is what I read somewhere); in cents per milliliter that's about 7 x 10^{-5). Doing a rough calculation that's about a twentieth of a pixel high at the scale of that graph. That just makes the log scale even more necessary.

    Are there any liquids that usually sell for more than printer ink, other than fine wine? ($0.70/mL is $525/750 mL bottle. Wow, a wine bottle of printer ink is almost my rent for a month!)

  2. I disagree with you guys about the log scale. The point of this plot is not to use it as a lookup table to read off the price of various liquids. For a non-technical target audience, a log scale would only obscure the enormous price difference that is the whole point of the plot.

  3. Phil,

    I don't want to use it as a lookup table either. I just want more information: is bottled water twice as expensive as crude oil, etc. And the target audience is me; that's why I wrote, "What I want is . . ." In any case, a well-presented log scale will show the enormous price difference even more clearly (for example, if presented in dollars per gallon so that some really big numbers come up).

  4. There's something fishy with the data. The chart is based on the HP inkjet cartridge price and dividing by the volume of ink in an inkjet cartridge.

    It would be interesting to see the price of the re-fill ink and then have a discussion about how the market in printer inks is rigged. (Hint – IP).

  5. Yes this is interesting and all, but what's the point? You could also look at the cost of manufactured goods in dollars per ounce. For example an iPhone costs $125 per ounce, whereas a Toyota Prius costs just 47 cents per ounce. That doesn't say much about the relative value of the two items.

  6. I'd add that, if the HP printer requires a 'genuine HP cartridge (i.e., an electronic key on the cartridge), then the price of an ink cartridge has very little to do with the per ml cost of the ink used.

  7. John S.,

    I agree that this is silly, but for some reason I still like it. One reason is that liquids are (for practical purposes) arbitrarily divisible, so the cost per gallon is at least slightly more interpretable than the cost of a Toyota per pound.

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