SOLUTION: Working with your cousin, you can refinish a table in 8 hours. Working alone, your cousin can complete the job in 12 hours. How long would it take you to refinish the table worki

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Question 130738: Working with your cousin, you can refinish a table in 8 hours. Working alone, your cousin can complete the job in 12 hours. How long would it take you to refinish the table working alone?
Answer by Earlsdon(6294) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let's find the hourly rate of work:
Y = you and C = your cousin.
The two of you can refinish the table in 8 hours, so you both can do 1/8 of th table in one hour. Write this as:
%28Y%2BC%29%281%29+=+1%2F8
Your cousin alone can refinish the table in 12 hours, so he/she can do 1/12 of the table in one hour. Write this as:
C%281%29+=+1%2F12
Now, if you subtract these you can find out how much you can do in one hour.
%28Y%2BC%29+-+C+=+1%2F8+-+1%2F12 Of course, (Y+C)-C = Y, so...
Y%281%29+=+1%2F8+-+1%2F12
Y%281%29+=+%283-2%29%2F24
Y%281%29+=+1%2F24 So, in one hour, you can refinish 1/24 of the table. Multiply both sides by 24 to see how many hours it would take you to refinish the entire table.
Y%2824%29%281%29+=+%2824%29%281%2F24%29
24 = 1}
So it would take you 24 hours to refinish the whole table.