SOLUTION: Al can paint a room in a hours working alone. Bill can paint a room in b hours working alone. Working alone, Bill takes two more hours to paint a room than Al. Working together,

Algebra ->  Algebra  -> Systems-of-equations -> SOLUTION: Al can paint a room in a hours working alone. Bill can paint a room in b hours working alone. Working alone, Bill takes two more hours to paint a room than Al. Working together,       Log On

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Question 144759: Al can paint a room in a hours working alone. Bill can paint a room in b hours working
alone. Working alone, Bill takes two more hours to paint a room than Al. Working together,
they can paint a room in 8 hours. Write down a system of two equations involving the variables
a and b that can be used to find a and b. Solve the system.
Answer by stanbon(48568) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Al can paint a room in "a" hours working alone.
Al rate = 1/a job/hr.
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Bill can paint a room in "b" hours working alone.
Bill rate = 1/b job/hr.
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Working alone, Bill takes two more hours to paint a room than Al.
b = a + 2
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Working together, they can paint a room in 8 hours.
Together rate = 1/(a + b) job/hr.
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Write down a system of two equations involving the variables a and b that can be used to find a and b.
EQUATIONS:
b = a + 2
(1/(a+b)) = 1/8
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Cheers,
Stan H.