Tara is painting a room.

Question

The room consists of four walls measuring 15 feet in length and 15 feet tall. If 1 gallon can of paint covers about 304 square feet, approximately how many cans of paint does Tara need?

Answer 1

I'm so glad that math problems today are using estimation techniques!

 

The surface area of four walls is 4*15*15 sq ft.

The paint covers approximately 300 sq ft/(1 gal)

 

The amount of paint needed is approximately ((1 gal)/(300 sq ft))*(4*15*15 sq ft)

 

Now, cancel the numbers:     (4*3*5*3*5) / (3*4*5*5) = 3 gal  

    (note: the difference between 300 sq ft and 304 sq feet is a very small amount, but it complicates the math)

Answer 2

First we need to calculate the area of each wall

 

Area = 15*15= 225 sq.ft

Area of the 4 walls = 4*225= 900 sq.ft

 

cans of paint enough to cover =900/304 = 2.96 cans ≈ 3 cans

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In case you want to include ceiling paint, you need to include the ceiling area

 

ceiling area = 15*15= 225sq.ft

 

Total painting area = 900+225= 1125 sq.ft

cans of paint enough to cover =1125/304 = 3.70 cans ≈ 4 cans

 

Note: These are 2 versions of the answer since I wasn't sure that the ceiling is mean to be included in the calculation. logically it should be included since you usually paint walls and ceiling together, but I'm not sure 100% that the intention of the question is to include the ceiling