SOLUTION: Two gardeners can do the weekly yard maintenance is 18 minutes if they work together. The older gardener takes 33 minutes more than the younger gardener to finish the job my himse

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Question 1149197: Two gardeners can do the weekly yard maintenance is 18 minutes if they work together. The older gardener takes 33 minutes more than the younger gardener to finish the job my himself. How long does it take for each gardener to do the weekly yard maintenance individually?
Answer by greenestamps(13206) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!


Standard algebraic solution method: work with the fractions of the work done in 1 minute.

Let x = number of minutes for faster worker
Then x+33 = number of minutes for slower worker

Faster worker does 1/x of the job in 1 minute
Slower worker does 1/(x+33) of the job in 1 minute
Together they do 1/18 of the job in 1 minute

1%2Fx+%2B+1%2F%28x%2B33%29+=+1%2F18

Solve by any method you like.

(Presumably you are working this problem to learn HOW to solve problems like this; in that case, the answers should be "nice" numbers. These answers are not "nice"; I suspect the numbers you show are wrong....)