document.write( "Question 914657: A mason and his assistant work together for 4 hours on a brick fireplace before the mason has to leave the job. The assistant finishes the job alone in 10 hours. If the mason can construct a fireplace in 12 hours working alone, how long does it take his assistant working alone to construct a fireplace?\r
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document.write( "I know this is a work problem and r*t=wc. If the problem was straight forward I would set it up as X/10 + x/12 =1 but how do i account for the fours hours already worked together? \n" );
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Algebra.Com's Answer #555226 by josgarithmetic(39620)![]() ![]() ![]() You can put this solution on YOUR website! Work-problems like this are a type of Uniform Rates problem. Try this equational format: RT=J for rate, time, amount of job. The rates are in dimension of \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Look at the rates for these workers. \n" ); document.write( "Mason, \n" ); document.write( "Assistant, \n" ); document.write( "Mason+Assistant, \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "The sum of their individual rates is their rate when they work together. We do not yet know the time needed for the assistant to do this 1 job alone; but I am calling this time, x.\r \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "The arrangement of the time and the workers was to do 1 whole job. They work together 4 hours and then assistant works alone to finish in 10 hours.\r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "The question essentially asks for finding the value of x. \n" ); document.write( "See the way the equation uses the uniform rates rule! \n" ); document.write( " |