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A skateboarding ramp is in the shape of a triangular prism, If the entire ramp is to be painted, and a can on spray paint covers 1,000 sq^2, how many cans will be needed?

1 Answer

10 votes

Explanation:

I don't have that much time to wait for all the clarifications, so I will make some assumptions based on what I saw in your comments so far.

please change the numbers in the calculation (and the recalculate) as necessary :

we are dealing with a triangular prism that acts as a ramp.

triangular means that the sides are in the shape of triangles.

but the front, the back and also the bottom areas are rectangles.

the area of a rectangle is length×width.

the area of a triangle is baseline×height/2

since it is supposed to be a ramp, I assume the triangle shape of the sides is right-angled. that means the back side of the ramp is standing straight up (90° angle with the bottom).

the height of the ramp is the height of the triangle side areas, and is simply the left leg of the triangle (again, going straight up with a 90° angle to the baseline).

I understand the height is 14 in.

I assume the front length is 50 in. and the depth of the ramp (the length of the baseline of the triangular sides) is 48 in.

now we get the length of the inclined "front" leg of the side triangles via Pythagoras

c² = a² + b²

with c being the side opposite of the 90° angle (exactly the inclined leg we are looking for) :

c² = 14² + 48² = 196 + 2304 = 2500

c = 50 in

that means our front rectangle of the ramp is actually a square of 50in × 50in.

the entire ramp is to be painted. that means really every side, including the bottom.

so, the whole surface area is the sum of the individual areas.

we have

1 (inclined) front area 50in × 50in

1 back side (straight up) 50in × 14in

1 bottom area 50in × 48in

2 side triangles 48in × 14in / 2 = 48in × 14in

so, we get as total area

50×50 = 2500 in²

50×14 = 700 in²

50×48 = 2400 in²

48×14 = 672 in²

---------------------------

6272 in²

now, one can of spray paint can cover 2000 in².

that means we need

6272 / 2000 = 3.136 cans.

and since we cannot buy fractions of cans, we need to round up.

we need 4 cans to do the painting job.

User Arie Pinto
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