Each pail of plaster covers 97 square feet of ceiling How many pails of plaster would you need to buy to cover the ceiling of a room with walls 16 feet long?

To determine how many pails of plaster are needed, first calculate the area of the ceiling. For a room with walls 16 feet long, the ceiling area is ( 16 \text{ ft} \times 16 \text{ ft} = 256 \text{ square feet} ). Since each pail covers 97 square feet, divide the total area by the coverage per pail: ( \frac{256}{97} \approx 2.64 ). Therefore, you would need to purchase 3 pails of plaster to ensure complete coverage.