Cleaning sidewalks. Edgar can blow the leaves off the
sidewalks around the capitol building in 2 hours using a
gasoline-powered blower. Ellen can do the same job in
8 hours using a broom. How long would it take them
working together?
If someone can show me how to work this problem I can get the answer. Thanks!
what is 1/(1/2 + 1/8) ?
Thanks
To solve this problem, we need to determine how long it would take Edgar and Ellen to clean the sidewalks if they worked together.
First, let's find out how much of the job each person can complete per hour by using their individual rates of work.
Edgar can complete the job in 2 hours, so his rate of work is 1/2 of the job per hour. Ellen can complete the job in 8 hours, so her rate of work is 1/8 of the job per hour.
To find out how much of the job they can complete per hour when working together, we need to add their individual rates of work.
Working together, Edgar and Ellen's combined rate of work is:
1/2 + 1/8 = 4/8 + 1/8 = 5/8 of the job per hour.
This means that together they can complete 5/8 of the job in one hour.
To determine how long it would take them to complete the entire job together, we can use the following formula:
Time = 1 / Rate
Here, Rate is their combined rate of work, which is 5/8.
Time = 1 / (5/8) = 8/5
So, it would take Edgar and Ellen working together 8/5 hours to clean the sidewalks.
To simplify the answer, we can convert the fraction to a mixed number:
8/5 = 1 3/5
Therefore, it would take Edgar and Ellen together 1 hour and 36 minutes to clean the sidewalks.