Janet, and experience shipping clerk, can fill a certain order in six hours. Tom, a new clerk, needs 11 hours to do the same job.

Question

working together, how long will it take them to fill the order?

 

Answer 1

It will take less than 6 hours because, despite being slower, Tom will still help somewhat,

thus reducing the overall time below Janet's original 6 hours.

 

First  convert Janet and Tom's times to how much of the job each completes per hour

 

J = 6 hours so she does 1/6 per hour

T = 11 hours so he does 1/11 per hour

 

We want to know how long together it takes them to do the whole job

 

(1/6 + 1/11)(x hours) = 100%

Change the 100% to a decimal (1)

 

(17/66 parts/hour)(x hours) = 1

 

x = 66/17 = 3 15/17 hours

 

If you need this converted to hours and minutes

then 15/17 hours (60 min/hr) = 52.94 mins

 

Total time is 3 hours 52.94 mins

We would most likely round that to 3 hrs 53 mins

 

Answer 2

It will take 6 hours, because there's no need to spend any longer than that to do the job even if it takes Tom longer to do it. It is a poorly worded math problem.