SOLUTION: Melanie can paint a certain barn by herself in x days. Her helper, Melissa can paint the same barn by herself in 2x days. Write a rational expression for the fraction of the barn t
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Question 184661: Melanie can paint a certain barn by herself in x days. Her helper, Melissa can paint the same barn by herself in 2x days. Write a rational expression for the fraction of the barn that they complete in one day by working together. Evaluate the expression for x=5.
Answer by solver91311(24713) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Melanie can paint a certain barn by herself in x days, so she can paint 
th of the barn in 1 day. Likewise her helper can paint 
th of the barn in 1 day.
Together, they can paint:
th of the barn in 1 day.
So together they take:
days to paint the barn.
Just substitute 5 for x to evaluate for 5 days.
In general if A takes x time periods to do a job, and B takes y time periods to do the same job, then working together they can complete the job in:
time periods.
John
