HELP me solve this! .... Mutt and Jeff need to paint a fence. Mutt can do the job alone 5 hours faster than Jeff. If together they work for 25 hours and finish only 7/8 of the job, how long would Jeff need to do the job alone?

Question

mertsj · Answer

Jeff can do the job in x hours so he does 1/x jobs per hour
Mutt can do the job in x-5 hours so he does 1/(x-5) jobs per hour.
They each work for 25 hours.
Jeff does this part of the job in 25 hours:  25/x
Mutt does this part of the job in 25 hours:  25/(x-5)
Together they do:  25/x+25/(x-5) and they get 7/8 of the job done.
So:

mertsj · Answer

$$\frac{25}{x}+\frac{25}{(x-5)}=\frac{7}{8}$$

mertsj · Answer

Solve that

anonymous · Answer

i got to that part already and im getting an incorrect answer. can you please tell me what you come up with?

mertsj · Answer

60 hours for Jeff and 55 for Mutt

anonymous · Answer

60 is incorrect as well

anonymous · Answer

im bout to give up