5 gallons of driveway sealer covers 120 square feet of pavement. How many gallons of sealer will be needed to cover an area of 2,128 ft^2?
Understand the Problem
The question is asking how much driveway sealer is needed to cover a specified area. To solve this, we need to determine the coverage per gallon and then calculate the total gallons required for the area of 2,128 square feet.
Answer
11 gallons
Answer for screen readers
11 gallons
Steps to Solve
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Determine Coverage per Gallon Find out the coverage area per gallon of driveway sealer. For example, if one gallon covers 200 square feet, we’ll use that number.
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Calculate Total Gallons Needed To find the total number of gallons needed, we will divide the total area by the coverage per gallon using the formula:
$$ \text{Total Gallons} = \frac{\text{Total Area}}{\text{Coverage per Gallon}} $$
- Substitute the Values Using our example values, replace the variables with the actual numbers:
$$ \text{Total Gallons} = \frac{2128 , \text{sq ft}}{200 , \text{sq ft/gallon}} $$
- Perform the Calculation Carry out the division to determine the total gallons required:
$$ \text{Total Gallons} = 10.64 $$
- Round Up Since you cannot buy a fraction of a gallon, round up to the nearest whole number. Therefore, you will need 11 gallons of driveway sealer.
11 gallons
More Information
It's important to note that when buying driveway sealer, you usually need to round up since you can't purchase a fraction of a gallon. Additionally, different sealers can have different coverage rates, so always check the label of the product you're using.
Tips
- Forgetting to round up the number of gallons needed.
- Miscalculating the coverage area per gallon, which can lead to underestimating or overestimating the necessary amount of sealer.