Question

A painter is painting a rectangular wall that measures 20.5 ft by 16.4 ft. Each gallon can of paint covers 200 square feet. What are the fewest gallons needed to paint the wall?

Answer 1

The painter needs at least two gallons of paint to cover the wall.

To get this answer, you first need to find the area of the wall; by multiplying 20.5 x 16.4. This will get you 336.2.

Then, you need to divide 336.2 by 200. This will get you approx. 1.6.

If it's asking for partial gallons as well, stop here. Your answer is 1.6.

If not, continue.

Unless you're including partial gallons, you can't get 1.6 gallons of paint, so you need to round up. This will be 2 gallons.

Answer 2

2

Explanation:

First calculate the area of the wall.

Area of a rectangle = width x length

Width = 16.4 ft and length = 20.5 ft

Therefore, area = 16.4 x 20.5 = 336.2 ft²

If one gallon can of paint covers 200 ft² then we need 2 cans of paint to paint a wall measuring 336.2 ft² (as 2 cans of paint = 2 x 200 = 400 ft²)