Question 194440
I need to drain a pool. I know one pump can drain the pool in 8min and if I use a second pump I can drain the pool in 4min. The problem is the first pump is being used so I can only use the second pump. So I need to know how long it will take me to drain the pool using only the second pump?
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Actually you can just look at this and see the answer is 8 min for the 2nd pump also,
however, that will not always be the case, here is a method that will work for any shared work problem
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Let t = time required for the 2nd pump to drain the pool by itself
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Let the completed job = 1; (drained pool)
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Write the equation for the two pumps working together.
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Each pump does a fraction of the job, those two fraction must add up to 1
{{{4/8}}} + {{{4/t}}} = 1
multiply the equation by 8t
8t*{{{4/8}}} + 8t*{{{4/t}}} = 8t(1)
cancel out the denominators and you have:
4t + 8(4) = 8t
4t + 32 = 8t
32 = 8t - 4t
32 = 4t
t = {{{32/4}}}
t = 8 min, both pumps pump at the same rate.