SOLUTION: hello. i'm kind of stuck on this work word problem and I was wondering if you could help me out. It says... The fill pipe can fill a tank in 3 hours and the drain pipe can d

Question 58486: hello. i'm kind of stuck on this work word problem and I was wondering if you could help me out. It says...

The fill pipe can fill a tank in 3 hours and the drain pipe can drain the tank in 1 hour. If both pipes are accidently opened, how long will it take to empty a tank filled with water?

a keep getting a negative answer, if you could explain this it would be helpful. Thanks!
Found 2 solutions by 123454321, ptaylor:
Answer by 123454321(2) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
the tank is impossible to fill becuase the drain pipe is faster than the fill
pipe
Answer by ptaylor(2198) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
hello. i'm kind of stuck on this work word problem and I was wondering if you could help me out. It says...
The fill pipe can fill a tank in 3 hours and the drain pipe can drain the tank in 1 hour. If both pipes are accidently opened, how long will it take to empty a tank filled with water?
a keep getting a negative answer, if you could explain this it would be helpful. Thanks!

rate at which the fill pipe fills =1/3 cu units per hour
rate at which the drain pipe drains =1 cu unit per hour (or all of it in 1 hour)
Rate at which the tank is emptied when both pipes are open equals the difference between the rate at which it empties and the rate at which it fills
1-1/3=2/3 cu units per hour. So:
Rate at which the tank is emptied when both pipes are open =2/3 cu units per hour or 1 divided by 2/3 = 3/2 hour=1.5 hours
Hope this helps---ptaylor

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