Painting the House

You have 14-1/2 gallons of paint. You need about 3-1/2 gallons to paint each room of the house. How many rooms can you paint with the paint available?

Approaches

Represent by picture.

Represent symbolically.

Can paint 4-1/2 rooms (4 rooms with 1/2 gallon left over)

Can paint 4-1/7 rooms (4 rooms with 1/7 room left over)

What are the units of the quotient?

Can paint 4 rooms, because you wouldn't want to start another room without enough paint to finish it.

What assumptions should we make?

Your experience

Have you used this problem with a class and seen approaches other than(or more specific than) those mentioned above? Or do you have other comments or criticisms or stories? If so, please tell us!

Last updated 30 November, 2004