HANDYMAN'S DILEMMA

John has been asked to paint the walls of an office building for $500. John is trying to determine whether to accept the job based on potential earnings.

There are 5 offices, each measuring 18 feet by 22 feet by 8 feet (length x width x height, respectively). For this analysis, you may ignore any doors or windows in the offices. In addition to the paint, it requires $15 worth of material such as drop
cloths and brushes to paint one room. Typically a gallon of paint provides 32.5 square meters of wall coverage.

The hardware store has three sizes of paint containers, at the costs shown in Figure 1.1: a 5-gallon option that costs $130, a 1-galon option that costs $27.96, and a 1-quart option that costs $12.98.

1. If John takes the job, how much paint should he order from the store, and what is the total cost?

2. Based on potential earnings, should John take the job? Justify your answer and indicate how much money he would make or lose after all costs are taken into consideration.

3. Assume John uses all the paint he orders, and applies the paint at an even thickness on all walls. In addition, assume one quart of the paint is lost to residue on brushes, drips, etc. How thick is the layer of paint John applied, in units of millimeters?