document.write( "<A HREF=/cgi-bin/jump-to-question.mpl?question=568937>Question 568937</A>: <I><SPAN STYLE=\"word-break: break-all;\">  If a wall was built by 4 men and 2 women in 5 days<BR>\n" );
document.write( "how many days it will take to built by 3 men and 1 women? </SPAN>\n" );
document.write( "</I><HR><TABLE width=100%><TR><TD><B><A HREF=http://www.algebra.com/>Algebra.Com's</A> Answer #367170 by </B><A HREF=/tutors/aboutme.mpl?userid=bucky><B>bucky(2189)</B></A><img src=\"/images/stars/stars-13.gif\" alt=\"\" >&nbsp;<A HREF=/tutors/aboutme.mpl?userid=bucky><IMG SRC=http://www.algebra.com/images/aboutme-small.gif BORDER=0 alt=\"About Me\" VALIGN=MIDDLE></A>&nbsp;<IMG SRC=http://www.algebra.com/images/nopicture.jpg><BR>You can <A HREF=\"/cgi-bin/embed-solution.mpl?show=1&solution=367170\">put this solution on YOUR website!</A><BR><SPAN STYLE=\"word-break: break-all;\"> Lacking further information to the contrary, you can assume that the men and the women have the same working ability. That being the case, the fact that each team is a mixture of men and women has no bearing on this problem. Just count the number of persons on the two teams. Doing this changes the problem to: If a wall was built by 6 persons in 5 days, how many days will it take for 4 persons?<BR>\n" );
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document.write( "That being the case, you can do the problem by determining the number of person-days it takes to build the wall. Do that by multiplying the persons on a team times the number of days it takes. You are told that 6 people can build the wall in 5 days and by multiplying 6 times 5 you can see that it takes 30 person-days to finish the job.<BR>\n" );
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document.write( "The other team consists of 4 persons. In order to put in the 30 person-days needed to build the wall 4 persons will need to work 7.5 days (30 divided by 4).<BR>\n" );
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document.write( "That seems about correct because if 6 people take 5 days to complete the wall, using less people on a team will certainly mean that more than 5 days will be needed to complete the wall. In fact, the ratio of 6 persons to 4 persons tells you how much longer. 6 is to 4 can be reduced to 3 is to 2. So it will take 3/2 times 5 days to complete the job with the smaller team, and 3/2 times 5 days equals 15/2 days which reduces to 7.5 days, the same answer as we previously determined by using person-days.<BR>\n" );
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document.write( "I hope this analytic approach to the problem gives you a better understanding of the procedures that can be used to solve it. Understanding math and using a thought process that applies to the problem is more important than looking for an equation that you can just substitute numbers into to get some sort of an answer, whether it is reasonable or not.<BR>\n" );
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