SOLUTION: John takes 8 hours to paint his room. After working for one hour, he called a painter to help him. Working together, they finished the job in 3 more hours. How long would it take f

Question 1188324: John takes 8 hours to paint his room. After working for one hour, he called a painter to help him. Working together, they finished the job in 3 more hours. How long would it take for the painter to finish the job if he had worked alone?
Found 2 solutions by ikleyn, josgarithmetic:
Answer by ikleyn(52787)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.
John takes 8 hours to paint his room. After working for one hour, he called a painter
to help him. Working together, they finished the job in 3 more hours.
How long would it take for the painter to finish the job if he had worked alone?
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Notice that John worked, in all, 1 + 3 = 4 hours; hence, John made half of the entire lob. The helper made the other half of the job working 3 hours. Hence, this helper could make the entire job in 6 hours, working alone. ANSWER

Solved.

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On joint work problems, see the lessons
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Answer by josgarithmetic(39617)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
John's rate is jobs per hour.
Painter's rate is jobs per hour.

John and the painter needed three more hours to do the whole job.

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