Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2024 March 23

= March 23 =

Cracker refineries
2601:282:237E:7DD0:D413:A4EF:18DF:853A (talk) 11:19, 23 March 2024 (UTC)
 * 1) of cracker refineries in the United States?


 * That would be the Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. --Lambiam 12:53, 23 March 2024 (UTC)


 * I believe the original poster meant "How many cracker refineries are there in the United States?". --142.112.220.50 (talk) 23:51, 23 March 2024 (UTC)
 * What do crackers have to do with oil refining? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:17, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
 * See Fluid catalytic cracking. HiLo48 (talk) 05:27, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Or, more generally, Cracking (chemistry). --Lambiam 19:08, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I interpret the question as “What was the first cracker refinery opened in the US?” Maybe OP is investigating how people interpret ambiguous questions. PiusImpavidus (talk) 18:58, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
 * The wikitext doesn't really say "1. of cracker refineries", but "# of cracker refineries". You know, with a number sign. --142.112.220.50 (talk) 19:06, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
 * I see. In some languages, "1., 2., 3." is the common way of saying the equivalent of "1st, 2nd, 3rd". --Lambiam 19:10, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
 * We have articles on 42 oil refineries in the United States, not counting unincorporated territories. To be economically viable, a commercially operating refining facility must be fairly large, so I expect this covers all of them. I have not checked if all are in operation today. --Lambiam 19:30, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
 * As of January 2022, there were 125 operating oil refineries in the United States per the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), via List of oil refineries AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 12:18, 26 March 2024 (UTC)