SOLUTION: steve is a painter. He can paint a house in 20 hours. It takes his assistant 30 hours to paint a house. How long, in hours, would it take them to paint a house working together

Algebra ->  Rate-of-work-word-problems -> SOLUTION: steve is a painter. He can paint a house in 20 hours. It takes his assistant 30 hours to paint a house. How long, in hours, would it take them to paint a house working together      Log On


   



Question 394736: steve is a painter. He can paint a house in 20 hours. It takes his assistant 30 hours to paint a house. How long, in hours, would it take them to paint a house working together
Answer by scott8148(6628) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
they each paint a FRACTION of a house, based on their individual times

the fractions add to one, the WHOLE house

x is the combined time ___ (x / 20) + (x / 30) = 1

multiplying by 60 (LCD) ___ 3x + 2x = 60