SOLUTION: Mr. Poly Nomial takes 8 hours to paint his room. After working for one hour, he called in a painter to help him. Working together they finished the job in 3 more hours. How long w

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Question 1012073: Mr. Poly Nomial takes 8 hours to paint his room. After working for one hour, he called in a painter to help him. Working together they finished the job in 3 more hours. How long would it take the painter to finish the whole job if he had worked alone?

Found 2 solutions by macston, stanbon:
Answer by macston(5194) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
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Mr Nomial worked on the room 4 hours
(1 hour alone, three hours with the painter)
Since he paints a whole room in 8 hours,
in four hours he painted half the room.
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The painter painted the other half in three hours:
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(3 hrs)/(1/2 room)=(3/(0.5)) hrs/room = 6 hours per room
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ANSWER: The painter could paint the room in 6 hours

Answer by stanbon(75887) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Mr. Poly Nomial takes 8 hours to paint his room. After working for one hour, he called in a painter to help him. Working together they finished the job in 3 more hours. How long would it take the painter to finish the whole job if he had worked alone?
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Mr. Poly completes 1/8 of the job in one hour.
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Mr. Poly rate is 1/8 job/hr
Helper's rate is 1/x job/hr
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Together their rate is (1/8 + 1/x) job/hr
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1/8 + 1/x = (7/8)/3 job/hr
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1/8 + 1/x = (7/24) job/hr
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24x + 8*24 = 7*8*x
32x = 8*24
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x = 6 hr (time for the painter to do the job alone)
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Cheers,
Stan H.
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