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
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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.