document.write( "Question 469791: If Sally can paint a house in 4 hours, and John can paint the same house in 6 hour, how long will it take for both of them to paint the house together?
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Algebra.Com's Answer #322292 by bucky(2189)\"\" \"About 
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Since Sally can paint a house in 4 hours, in an hour she completes 1/4 of the house. And since John can paint the same house in 6 hours, in an hour he completes 1/6 of the house. Therefore, in one hour the sum of their combined efforts is:
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\n" ); document.write( "\"1%2F4+%2B+1%2F6\"
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\n" ); document.write( "of the job.
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\n" ); document.write( "Add these two fractions by converting them to the common denominator of 12 to get:
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\n" ); document.write( "\"3%2F12+%2B+2%2F12+=+5%2F12\"
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\n" ); document.write( "So in each hour they complete five twelfths of the one job.
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\n" ); document.write( "The question, therefore, is how many hours (call them t for time) does it take for them to complete the entire one job (that is 12 twelfths of the job). Set up the following equation:
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\n" ); document.write( "\"%285%2F12%29%2At+=+12%2F12\"
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\n" ); document.write( "Solve this equation by first multiplying both sides of the equation by 12 to eliminate the denominator of 12 and get:
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\n" ); document.write( "\"5t+=+12%29\"
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\n" ); document.write( "Solve this equation by dividing both sides by 5:
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\n" ); document.write( "\"t+=+12%2F5\"
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\n" ); document.write( "and divide 12 by 5 to get the answer:
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\n" ); document.write( "\"t+=+2.4\"
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\n" ); document.write( "So it takes 2.4 hours for them working together to paint the house. (And since there are 60 minutes in an hour, the 0.4 of an hour is \"60%2A0.4+=+24\" minutes.) Therefore, working together they will complete the job in 2 hours and 24 minutes.
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\n" ); document.write( "Hope this helps you to understand the problem better.
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