Word problem: Sally can paint the house in 4 hours....

mamom

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Need help on how to solve this problem

Sally can paint the house in 4 hours. James can paint the house in 6 hours. If they paint it together how long will it take them?
 
Re: Word problem

mamom said:
Need help on how to solve this problem

Sally can paint the house in 4 hours. James can paint the house in 6 hours. If they paint it together how long will it take them?

If Sally can paint the house in 4 hours, then each hour, she paints 1/4 of the house.

If James can paint the house in 6 hours, then each hour, he paints 1/6 of the house.

Now, let x = number of hours they work together.

In x hours, Sally paints x/4 of the house, and James paints x/6 of the house.

And, what they do together in that x hours is the whole house!

So,

(x / 4) + (x / 6) = 1

Solve that for x....(hint: multlply both sides of the equation by the common denominator for the fractions)
 
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