SOLUTION: I am trying to help my child with his homework. The problem is "Gary is going to stain a square board on one side only. The width of the board is 2 YARDS. A half pint of stain c

Question 248486: I am trying to help my child with his homework. The problem is "Gary is going to stain a square board on one side only. The width of the board is 2 YARDS. A half pint of stain covers approx. 30 square FEET. If Gary wants to put on 2 coats of stain, haw many pints of stain dows he need?"
We keep coming up with 2 answers that appear right, depending on if you change the YARDS to FEET at the beginning or end of the equation. What is the proper way to do this problem??
Thank you,
Confused Mom
Found 4 solutions by stanbon, richwmiller, dabanfield, jsmallt9:
Answer by stanbon(75887)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
I am trying to help my child with his homework.
The problem is "Gary is going to stain a square board on one side only. The width of the board is 2 YARDS.
A half pint of stain covers approx. 30 square FEET.
If Gary wants to put on 2 coats of stain, haw many pints of stain does he need?"
We keep coming up with 2 answers that appear right, depending on if you change the YARDS to FEET at the beginning or end of the equation. What is the proper way to do this problem??
-------------------------------
2 yrds = 6 feet
Area of the board is 6' by 6' = 36 sq feet
Two coats would require you cover 72 sq feet.
-----------------------------------------------
A half pint covers 30 sq ft.
So a pint covers 60 sq ft.
-----------------------------
# of pints needed = 72 sq ft/60 sq ft = 18/15 = 1 1/5 pints
==============================================================
Cheers,
Stan H.
Answer by richwmiller(17219)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Dear Mom,
I don't see the length of the board mentioned anywhere!
The width is 2 yds or 6ft.
Half a pint of stain covers 30 sq ft
He wants two coats of stain

Answer by dabanfield(803)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
I am trying to help my child with his homework. The problem is "Gary is going to stain a square board on one side only. The width of the board is 2 YARDS. A half pint of stain covers approx. 30 square FEET. If Gary wants to put on 2 coats of stain, haw many pints of stain dows he need?"
Mom:
We need to get everything into square feet at the start. The board is a square 6 feet(2 yards) by 6 feet. So the board is 36 square feet. It will take two coats so 2 times 36 square feet is 72 square feet.
Each half pint covers 30 square feet so a full pint covers 60 square feet.
Number of pints needed = 72/60 = ?
Remember a fraction of a pint will need to be rounded up. :)
Answer by jsmallt9(3758)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Change the yards to feet at the beginning. Most people know that 1 yard = 3 feet. Not as many people know that 1 square yard = 9 (not 3) square feet. Here's a drawing to show why:

Imagine the side of each small square is 1 foot. That makes the large square, with 3 feet on each side, 1 square yard. As you can see, it takes 9 square feet to make a square yard.

So I'm sure you got the correct answer when you converted to feet before you found the area:
A = 5*6 = 36 square feet
Two coats requires enough stain for 2*36 or 72 square feet.
A proportion can be used to find the answer. (There are other ways, too.):
Let x = the number of pints needed for two coats. Then

Solving this we can cross multiply giving us:

Dividing both sides by 30 we get:
pints
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