SOLUTION: An engineer takes 1 hour longer to do a job than the other engineer. Working together they can finalize a job in 5 hours. How long would it take for each of them to do the job alon

Algebra ->  Rate-of-work-word-problems -> SOLUTION: An engineer takes 1 hour longer to do a job than the other engineer. Working together they can finalize a job in 5 hours. How long would it take for each of them to do the job alon      Log On


   



Question 22479: An engineer takes 1 hour longer to do a job than the other engineer. Working together they can finalize a job in 5 hours. How long would it take for each of them to do the job alone?
Answer by stanbon(64) (Show Source):
Assume the 1st engineer can do the job in "x" hours.
Then each hour he is doing 1/x of the job.
The 2nd engineer does the job in "x+1" hours.
So each hour he is doing 1/(x+1) of the job.
Equation:
They work together for 5 hours and get the job done so
5[(1/x) +(1/(x+1)] = 1 job
Solve for x and x+1.
I understand so far but I cannot get past this .....
x^2-9x+5, I cannot factor it down so I can get the answer.

Answer by stanbon(75887) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
I think it is x^2-9x-5=0
Solved by pluggable solver: SOLVE quadratic equation (work shown, graph etc)
Quadratic equation ax%5E2%2Bbx%2Bc=0 (in our case 1x%5E2%2B-9x%2B-5+=+0) has the following solutons:

x%5B12%5D+=+%28b%2B-sqrt%28+b%5E2-4ac+%29%29%2F2%5Ca

For these solutions to exist, the discriminant b%5E2-4ac should not be a negative number.

First, we need to compute the discriminant b%5E2-4ac: b%5E2-4ac=%28-9%29%5E2-4%2A1%2A-5=101.

Discriminant d=101 is greater than zero. That means that there are two solutions: +x%5B12%5D+=+%28--9%2B-sqrt%28+101+%29%29%2F2%5Ca.

x%5B1%5D+=+%28-%28-9%29%2Bsqrt%28+101+%29%29%2F2%5C1+=+9.52493781056044
x%5B2%5D+=+%28-%28-9%29-sqrt%28+101+%29%29%2F2%5C1+=+-0.524937810560445

Quadratic expression 1x%5E2%2B-9x%2B-5 can be factored:
1x%5E2%2B-9x%2B-5+=+%28x-9.52493781056044%29%2A%28x--0.524937810560445%29
Again, the answer is: 9.52493781056044, -0.524937810560445. Here's your graph:
graph%28+500%2C+500%2C+-10%2C+10%2C+-20%2C+20%2C+1%2Ax%5E2%2B-9%2Ax%2B-5+%29


Cheers,
Stan H.