SOLUTION: I need to solve these two word problems, where do I start Bart can complete his science task twice as quickly as Carl can. When they work together, the task takes 3 hours. How

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Question 9434: I need to solve these two word problems, where do I start

Bart can complete his science task twice as quickly as Carl can. When they work together, the task takes 3 hours. How long would it take Carl to do the work alone?

The ratio of women to men in a certain club is 3 to 2. If there are 24 male club members, then how many female club members are there?







Answer by rapaljer(4551) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Since Bart does it twice as quickly as Carl, this means that the time that it takes Carl is twice as long as the time it takes Bart.

Let x= Time it takes Bart to do the job
2x = Time it takes Carl to do the job

Since Bart can do the job in x hours, in one hour Bart can do 1/x of the job.
Since Carl can do the job in 2x hours, in one hour Bart can do 1/(2x) of the job.
Since together they can do the job in 3 hours, in one hour, they can do 1/x of the job.

The equation is that the part of the job that Bart can do in 1 hour + the part of the job that Carl can do in 1 hour = the part of the job that they can do together in 1 hour.

1%2Fx+%2B+1%2F%282x%29+=+1%2F3

The LCD for the whole equation is 6x, so multiply both sides by 6x:
1%2Fx+%2B+1%2F%282x%29+=+1%2F3
%286x%29%2A%281%2Fx%29+%2B+%286x%29%2A%281%2F%282x%29%29+=+%286x%29%2A%281%2F3%29
6+%2B+3+=+2x
9=2x
x+=+9%2F2+ hours or 4.5 hours = time for Bart to do the job.

It takes Carl twice as long, so that would be 9 hours to do the job.

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In the second problem, there might be an easier way to solve it.

Let x = number of women in the club, and set up a ratio:
%28Women%29%2F%28men%29+ : 3%2F2+=+x%2F24

Remember a%2Fb=c%2Fd which becomes a%2Ad=b%2Ac??

Solve for x:
3%2F2+=+x%2F24
2x+=+3%2A24
2x+=+72
x+=+36

R^2 at SCC