Question

Working together, two secretaries can stuff the envelopes for a political fund-raising letter in 2 hours. Working alone, it takes the slower worker 3 hours longer to do the job than the faster worker. How long does it take each to do the job alone?

two answers one for faster worker and one for slower worker

@Calculus1

Answer 1

The first secretary does the job in x hours so she does 1/x in one hour.
The second secretary does the job in x+3 hours so she does 1/(x+3) in one hour. Together the do the entire job in 2 hours so in 1 hour they do 1/2 of the job in one hour when working together. So: 1/x+1/(x+3) = 1/2 Solving yields 3 and -2. Reject the negative answer. So it takes the first secretary 3 hours to do the job and the second one takes x+3 hours or 6 hours.

Answer 2

that doesnt make sense as the slower worker takes less time then the faster worker??

Answer 3

The first secretary is faster and she takes 3 hours. The second secretary is slower and she takes 6 hours to do the job. Now, I ask you...who is faster?

Answer 4

it says in the question the SLOWER worker takes 3 hours so the faster worker has to be faster then 3 hours lol i may be wrong just saying

Answer 5

If you read carefully you will see that the problem says it takes the slower worker 3 hours longer to do the job than the faster worker

Answer 6

It does not take her 3 hours...it takes 3 hours more

Answer 7

faster 3 hours slower 6 hours

Answer 8

thats what u wrote not me :p So it takes the first secretary 3 hours to do the job and the second one takes x+3 hours or 6 hours.

Answer 9

is that not exactly what I said?

Answer 10

yeah i wrote that answer andcorrect thanks

Answer 11

aposadas ur correct

Answer 12

I think the point is that the questioner can't do simultaneous equations.