Final answer:
To cover a basketball with an area of 277 inches squared, approximately 397 ants are needed.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find the number of ants needed to cover a basketball, we need to calculate the ratio of the surface areas of the ant and the basketball.
Given that ants cover 0.7 square inches and the surface area of the basketball is 277 square inches, we can set up the following proportion:
0.7 inches^2 / 277 inches^2 = x ants / 1 basketball
Cross-multiplying and solving for x, we get:
x = (0.7 inches^2 * 1 basketball) / 277 inches^2
x ≈ 0.0025 ants
Since ants cannot be measured in decimals, we round up the value to the nearest whole number.
Therefore, 397 ants are needed to cover a basketball.