Dakota B.

asked • 03/28/17

If Alice can paint a room in 8 hours and Tom can paint the same room in 12, how many hours will it take them to paint it together?

This is all the information, please help me if you can!

1 Expert Answer

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Mark M. answered • 03/28/17

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h represents the hours needed working together
h/8 + h/12 = 1
 
Can you solve for h?
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Rafael G.

I just wanted to give this a try because I have always had trouble with these types of questions for some reason.
 
Below is how I worked out the problem:
 
First divide both sides by "h" to get - 1/8 + 1/12 = 1/h
Then Find the LCM (least common multiple) of 8 and 12 which I found was 24.
So you multiply both sides by 24 to get - 24/8 + 24/12 = 24/h
Simplify to get - 3 + 2 = 24h or 5 = 24h
Multiply both sides by "h" to get - 5h = 24
Divide both sides by 5 to get - h = 24/5
Simplify - h = 4 4/5 or h = 4 hours and 48 min 
 
I apologize if there are any mistakes, please feel free to correct me.
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07/26/18

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