A piece of work can be done by 6 men and 5 women in 6 days or 3 men and 4 women in 10 days.In how many days can be done by 9 men and 15 women?
>>A piece of work can be done by 6 men and 5 women in 6 days...
Suppose a man's work rate in jobs per day is 1 job per M days, or 1/M jobs per day.
Suppose a woman's work rate in jobs per day is 1 jobs per W days, or 1/W jobs per day.
In 6 days 1 man can do (1/M)*6 = 6/M (fraction of a job)
In 6 days 1 woman can do (1/W)*6 = 6/W (fraction of a job)
Therefore:
In 6 days 6 man can do 6*6/M jobs or 36/M (fraction of a job).
In 6 days 5 women can do 5*6/W jobs or 30/W (fraction of a job).
So in those 6 days they did 36/M+30/W which equals 1 job:
So one equation is 36/M + 30/W = 1
>>or 3 men and 4 women in 10 days.
Therefore
In 10 days 3 man can do 3*10/M jobs or 30/M (fraction of a job).
In 10 days 4 women can do 4*10/W jobs or 40/W (fraction of a job).
So in those 10 days they did 30/M+40/W which equals 1 job:
So another equation is 30/M + 40/W = 1
The system is
It makes a mess to clear of fractions, so don't!
Use elimination. Multiply the first equation by 4 and the second
by -3 to cancel the W terms:
So 1 man can do the job in 54 days.
Substitute in
Now we can clear of fractions:
So 1 woman can do the job in 90 days.
>>In how many days can be done by 9 men and 15 women?
In 1 day 9 men can do 9/M=9/54=1/6 (fraction of a job).
In 1 day 15 women can do 15/W=15/90=1/6 (fraction of a job).
So together in one day they can do 1/6+1/6 = 2/6 = 1/3 of a job.
So it will take them 3 days
Edwin