SOLUTION: sam and bill can paint a fence in one hour. Sam can paint three times as fast as Bill in any given amount of time. How many minutes would it take Sam to paint the fence alone?

Question 965020: sam and bill can paint a fence in one hour. Sam can paint three times as fast as Bill in any given amount of time. How many minutes would it take Sam to paint the fence alone?
Answer by josmiceli(19441) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Working together, their rate is:
[ 1 fence ] / [ 1 hr ]
---------------------
Let = time in hrs for Sam
to paint fence
= time for Bill to paint fence
( 3 times slower )
---------------------
Add their rates of painting to get
their rate painting together

Multiply both sides by

and

----------------

Convert hr to minutes

Sam takes 1 hr 20 min to paint fence
-----------------------------------
check:

OK

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