A and B do a work together in five days If A do the work with double speed and B with half the speed then they do the work in 4 days together find A alone do the work in how much time.
Here's a slightly different approach, where we add their rates in
jobs per day working alone to get their combined rate working together.
We let x = A's time in days working alone and y = B's time in days
working alone. In each case 1 job is done. Double speed means half
the time and half speed means twice the time. We get the rates in
jobs per day by dividing jobs by days:
Jobs Time Rate in
done in days Jobs/day
A working alone at regular speed 1 x 1/x
B working alone at regular speed 1 y 1/y
A working alone at double speed 1 x/2 1/(x/2) = 2/x
B working alone at half-speed 1 2y 1/(2y)
A&B together at regular speed 1 5 1/5
A at double speed & B at half speed 1 4 1/4
The two equations come from
+ =
+ =
and
+ =
+ =
The system is:
+ =
+ =
A slightly different way of dealing with systems with the variables
in the denominators is to eliminate WITHOUT clearing of fractions to
avoid getting xy terms (or ab terms in the other tutor's solution).
Multiply the first equation by -2
- =
+ =
Add the equations and get:
+ = +
Now we clear of fractions. Multiply through by 20y
-40 + 10 = -8y + 5y
-30 = -3y
10 = y
Substitute in
+ =
+ =
Multiply through by 10x
10 + x = 2x
10 = x
So it takes them each 10 days working alone.
When the variables are in the denominators it's better to
eliminate WITHOUT clearing of fractions, and wait till
after eliminating to clear of fractions:
Edwin