SOLUTION: working alone, Nicole can sweep A porch in 15 minutes. Mark can sweep the same porch in 9 minutes. Find how long it would take them if they worked together.

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Question 1042462: working alone, Nicole can sweep A porch in 15 minutes. Mark can sweep the same porch in 9 minutes. Find how long it would take them if they worked together.
Answer by ikleyn(52878) About Me  (Show Source):
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working alone, Nicole can sweep A porch in 15 minutes. Mark can sweep the same porch in 9 minutes.
Find how long it would take them if they worked together.
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Standard joint work problem.

Nicole makes 1%2F15 of the job per minute.
Mark   makes 1%2F9 of the job per minute.

Working together, they make 1%2F15+%2B+1%2F9 = 3%2F45+%2B+5%2F45 = 8%2F45 of the job per minute.

So, they need 45%2F8 minutes to complete the job working together.

For a bunch of similar solved joint work problems see the lessons
    - Using Fractions to solve word problems on joint work,
    - Solving more complicated word problems on joint work,
    - Selected joint-work word problems from the archive
in this site.

Read them and become an expert in solving these problems.