A construction company needs to remove tons of dirt from a construction site. They can remove tons of dirt each hour. How long will take to remove the dirt?

Question

A construction company needs to remove tons of dirt from a construction site. They can remove tons of dirt each hour. How long will take to remove the dirt?

Answer 1

Here is a generic way to set up this type of algebra problem.

 

d = total amount of dirt at the site (tons)

r = rate or removal (tons/hr)

t = time it takes to remove all of the dirt (hr)

 

d = rt

The total amount of dirt equals the removal rate times hours spent removing all the dirt.

 

Since you want to solve for t, divide both sides by r

 

t = d/r