mike can complete a project in 60 minutes, and if mike and walter both work on the project, they can complete it in 40 minutes. how long will it take walter to complete the project by himself?

1/60 + 1/x = 1/40

x = 120 minutes or 2 hours?

To find out how long it will take Walter to complete the project by himself, we can use the concept of work rates.

Let's assume that Mike's work rate is M projects per minute, and Walter's work rate is W projects per minute.

According to the problem, we know that Mike can complete 1 project in 60 minutes. Therefore, Mike's work rate can be expressed as:

M = 1 project / 60 minutes

If both Mike and Walter work on the project together, they can complete it in 40 minutes. Their combined work rate can be expressed as:

(M + W) = 1 project / 40 minutes

Now, we need to find Walter's work rate W. We can subtract Mike's work rate from the combined work rate to get:

W = (M + W) - M
W = 1 / 40 - 1 / 60

Simplifying the equation:

W = (3 - 2) / (3 * 40)
W = 1 / 120

So, Walter's work rate is 1 project per 120 minutes.

To find out how long it will take Walter to complete the project by himself, we need to invert his work rate:

1 / W = 1 / (1/120)
1 / W = 120

Therefore, it will take Walter 120 minutes to complete the project by himself.