Time Needed to Paint a House.

Question

Jim can paint a house by himself in 2 hours. Steven can paint the same house by himself in 4 hours. If Jim and Steven paint the house together, how many minutes will it take them to paint the house?

Answer 1

If it takes 2 hours to paint a house, in 1 hour you paint 1/2 the house. If it takes 4 hours to paint a house, in one hour you paint 1/4 of the house. Working together, after one hour 1/2 + 1/4 =3/4 of the house is painted. Set 3/4x = 1, and solve for x. x = 4/3 hours, which = 1 1/3 hours. 1 1/3 hours is 80 minutes. Thanks for your time and consideration! :)

Answer 2

The time it takes to paint the house is shown by a ratio of 1 house per 2 hours for Jim and 1 house per 4 hours for Steven. In other words, Jim paints 1/2 of the house in 1 hour, and Steven paints 1/4 of the house in 1 hour. 1/2 + 1/4 = the time it takes them to work together for 1 hour. We need to convert the fractions so they can be added together, so it becomes 2/4 + 1/4 = 3/4 of a house will be painted in 1 hour. To find out how long it takes to paint the whole house, we divide 1 house by the rate of 3/4 of a house per hour, and get an answer of 4/3 of an hour per house. By multiplying 4/3 times 60 (as in the minutes of an hour), we find that it takes them 80 minutes to paint the house together, or 1 1/3 hours.