A sail on a sailboat has a base of 10 ft. and a height of 18 ft. and needs to be sealed with water repellent. One can of water repellent will cover 50 sq. ft., how many cans will be needed to cover the sail?
A = hb/2
A = 90 square feet
How many cans will be needed?
2 cans will be needed.
Right.
To find out how many cans of water repellent are needed to cover the sail, we need to calculate the area of the sail first. The area of a triangle (such as the sail) can be found using the formula:
Area = (base * height) / 2
In this case, the base of the sail is 10 ft and the height is 18 ft, so:
Area = (10 * 18) / 2
= 90 ft²
Now that we have the area of the sail, we can determine the number of cans needed. Each can of water repellent covers 50 ft², so we can divide the area of the sail by the coverage per can:
Number of cans = Area of sail / Coverage per can
= 90 ft² / 50 ft²
= 1.8 cans
Since you can't have a fraction of a can, you'll need to round up to the nearest whole number. Therefore, you'll need to buy 2 cans of water repellent to cover the sail.