Two candles of different sizes were lit. The 12cm candles burned at 0.5cm per hour and the 18 cm candles burned at 2cm per hour. How many hours did it take the two candle sizes to burn to the same size.?
I got 4 hrs but don’t think I did equation correctly
12 - .5 t = 18 - 2 t
solve for t
your result is correct
To find the number of hours it takes for the two candles to burn to the same size, we can set up an equation based on the rates at which they burn.
Let's denote the time it takes for the 12cm candle to burn to the same size as the 18cm candle as "t" hours.
The amount of candle burned can be calculated by multiplying the burning rate (in cm/hr) by the time (in hours). So, for the 12cm candle, the amount burned after "t" hours would be 0.5t cm, and for the 18cm candle, the amount burned after "t" hours would be 2t cm.
Since we want the two candles to be the same size after "t" hours, we can set up the following equation:
12 - 0.5t = 18 - 2t
Simplifying the equation, we get:
0.5t - 2t = 18 - 12
-1.5t = 6
t = 6 / (-1.5)
t = -4
However, we cannot have negative time in this context. Therefore, it seems there might be an error in the problem statement or in the calculations.
Please double-check the problem statement and calculations to determine the correct solution.