Saturday, November 24, 2012

Painting Problems


I have been obsessed with painting walls since I was a kid.  Growing up, I changed the paint on my bedroom walls nine times.  My dad always talked about how much paint I would need, and square footage, but I never really paid attention until I had to start paying for the paint.  We received a word project in math class related to this, and I actually liked working on it. 

The problem is to find the surface area of the walls and doors of a garage you need to paint.  There was a diagram provided with the dimensions for the garage.  The three doors would be white and the rest of the garage would be blue.  The windows would not need to be painted. 

This is the diagram provided on the worksheet...


I labeled the windows and doors of the garage by numbers, so it would be easy to identify which windows and doors correlate to the table.  I drew my own diagram with colors, so it would be easier to solve.


The areas colored blue were to be painted blue, the areas colored pink were to be painted white, and the orange areas are not to be painted at all.  I made a chart to easily see the measurements and compute the total surface area to be painted.




I enjoy doing math homework that relates to real life situations!

I found this website with puzzles and games for math class.  I had a fun time messing around on here, and I can only imagine what a great time students would have! Math is fun .com




2 comments:

  1. I like how you related the problem to your personal life. I think being able to relate it to your life makes it more meaningful. It is also a very practical problem, which I liked. You also did a great job showing your work and color coding your own diagram.

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  2. I love this! You added something no one else has to their blog and I feel this was one of the most important assignments we were given. It truly related to a real-life situation and that is how students remember things and learn best. Your work and visuals are fantastic and your overall blog is great!

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