How do you solve this?
Andrew and timothy volunteer at a local recycling plant. Andrew can sort a batch of recyclables in 2 hours alone while his bother timothy needs 3 hours to complete the same job. If they work together, how long will it take them to sort 1 batch?

Question

How do you solve this?
Andrew and timothy volunteer at a local recycling plant. Andrew can sort a batch of recyclables in 2 hours alone while his bother timothy needs 3 hours to complete the same job. If they work together, how long will it take them to sort 1 batch?

anonymous · Answer

use the equation x/2 = 1 to represent andrew's speed, then add x/3 into it to account for another person working: x/2+x/3=1 you'll get one and one fifth which makes sense because if they both worked at the same speed the would get it done twice as fast, but since timothy is a little slower it takes a littler longer than one hour.