Question

Molly is building a model of the solar system for the science fair. her model of mercury has a radius of 6 centimeters. about how much paint will it take to completely cover the model? use 3.14 for pi and round your answer to the nearest tenth of a square centimeter, if necessary.

Answer 1

Molly needs about 452.2 square centimeters of paint to completely cover her spherical model of Mercury, using the surface area formula 4πr² and rounding to the nearest tenth.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student is asking about the amount of paint needed to cover a model with a certain radius. To find the surface area of Molly's spherical model of Mercury, we use the formula for the surface area of a sphere, which is 4πr2, where π (pi) is approximately 3.14 and r is the radius of the sphere. Since Molly's model has a radius of 6 centimeters, we can plug this value into the formula:

Surface area = 4 × 3.14 × (6 cm)2

Surface area = 4 × 3.14 × 36 cm2

Surface area = 452.16 cm2

After calculating, the surface area Molly will need to cover is 452.16 cm2. However, we need to round our answer to the nearest tenth:

Surface area ≈ 452.2 cm2

So, it will take about 452.2 square centimeters of paint to cover the model completely.