A five gallon bucket of tar can seal 3500 square feet of blacktop. If a parking lot is 15000 square feet, how many buckets of tar must be purchased in order to seal it?

15000/3500 = ?

round up to next whole bucket

15

To find the number of buckets of tar needed to seal a parking lot, follow these steps:

Step 1: Determine the amount of tar needed to seal 1 square foot of blacktop.
- A 5-gallon bucket of tar seals 3500 square feet.
- Therefore, 1 square foot requires 1/3500 gallons of tar from a bucket.

Step 2: Calculate the total amount of tar needed to seal the parking lot.
- The parking lot is 15,000 square feet.
- Multiply the area of the parking lot by the amount of tar required per square foot:
15,000 square feet × (1/3500 gallon/square foot) = 4.29 gallons of tar.

Step 3: Determine the number of buckets needed to purchase.
- Each bucket contains 5 gallons of tar.
- Divide the total tar needed by the capacity of a single bucket:
4.29 gallons ÷ 5 gallons/bucket = 0.858 buckets.

Step 4: Round up to the nearest whole number.
- Since you cannot purchase a fraction of a bucket, round up to ensure you have enough tar.
- In this case, round up 0.858 to 1.

Therefore, you would need to purchase 1 bucket of tar to seal a parking lot with an area of 15,000 square feet.

To determine the number of buckets of tar needed to seal the parking lot, we need to divide the total area of the parking lot by the area that can be sealed by one bucket of tar.

Step 1: Calculate the area that can be sealed by one bucket of tar:
- One bucket of tar can seal 3500 square feet.

Step 2: Calculate the number of buckets needed to seal the entire parking lot:
- The parking lot has an area of 15000 square feet.
- Divide the total area of the parking lot by the area that can be sealed by one bucket of tar:
15000 square feet ÷ 3500 square feet = 4.28 (approx.)

Step 3: Round up to the nearest whole number:
- Since we cannot purchase a fraction of a bucket, we have to round up to the nearest whole number.
- Therefore, you would need to purchase 5 buckets of tar in order to seal the entire parking lot.

In conclusion, you would need to purchase 5 buckets of tar to seal the parking lot.