Question 1071009
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A man can paint a certain house in 5 days. He and his brother can do the job together in 3 days. 
How many days would it take his brother to paint the house if he worked alone?
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<pre>
Working together, they paint {{{1/3}}} of the house per day.

Working alone, the man can paint {{{1/5}}} of the house per day.

It means, that the brother alone can paint {{{1/3 - 1/5}}} of the house per day.


{{{1/3 - 1/5}}} = {{{5/15 - 3/15}}} = {{{2/15}}}.


Thus the brother alone can paint {{{2/15}}} of the house per day.


Hence, it will take {{{15/2}}} = 7.5 days for the brother to do this job working alone.
</pre>

Solved.   &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;You do not need solve equation to get the answer.


To freely operate with fraction is ENOUGH.



You can find many other similar solved joint-work problems in the lessons

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- <A HREF=http://www.algebra.com/algebra/homework/Rate-of-work-word-problems/Word-problems-WORKING-TOGETHER-by-Fractions.lesson>Using Fractions to solve word problems on joint work</A>,

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- <A HREF=http://www.algebra.com/algebra/homework/Rate-of-work-word-problems/Solving-more-complicated-word-problems-on-joint-work.lesson>Solving more complicated word problems on joint work</A>,

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- <A HREF=https://www.algebra.com/algebra/homework/Rate-of-work-word-problems/Selected-problems-from-the-archive-on-joint-work-word-problems.lesson>Selected joint-work word problems from the archive</A> 

in this site.


Read them, and you will learn how to solve such problems once and for all. 


Read them and get trained in solving joint-work problems.