Jordan is a manager of a car dealership. He has 3 professional car washers to clean the entire lot of cars, Jennifer, Arianna, and Matthew. Jennifer can wash all the cars in 14 hours. Arianna can wash all the cars in 11 hours. Matthew is new to the car dealership, so no one knows how long it will take him.

Jordan assigns all of them to wash the cars together. Explain to Jordan how this task can tell him how long it would take Matthew to complete the task if he worked by himself. Use complete sentences.

Question

Jordan is a manager of a car dealership. He has 3 professional car washers to clean the entire lot of cars, Jennifer, Arianna, and Matthew. Jennifer can wash all the cars in 14 hours. Arianna can wash all the cars in 11 hours. Matthew is new to the car dealership, so no one knows how long it will take him.

Jordan assigns all of them to wash the cars together. Explain to Jordan how this task can tell him how long it would take Matthew to complete the task if he worked by himself. Use complete sentences.

anonymous · Answer

I know I start with 1/11 + 1/14 + 1/m = 1/x

anonymous · Answer

@Directrix 
@ganeshie8

directrix · Answer

@hellokitty01   What does x represent in the equation you wrote?

anonymous · Answer

the time it takes for all of them to wash the cars

anonymous · Answer

This is what I got so far

25mx +154x = 154m

anonymous · Answer

And i factored x out to get x(25m + 154) = 154m

directrix · Answer

Take a look at the discussion here and see if you follow it: http://openstudy.com/updates/53f55faee4b0e0a0d4f63f1f Work by @IMStuck

directrix · Answer

Read it and let me know what you think, okay. @hellokitty01

anonymous · Answer

that makes sense. I did write a written explanation down but I don't think it's very good and I was trying to figure out the equation to use it as an example

anonymous · Answer

I guess I could come up with my own example to plug into the equation 1/11 + 1/14 + 1/m = 1/x for x and then show how Matthew's time could be found from that

directrix · Answer

Yes. You need to say what x represents. I think it is the time required if all three people worked together.

Did you follow how to write the explanation for Matthew based on the other thread?

anonymous · Answer

yes i do

directrix · Answer

I don't know that you have to pick a number for Matthew to show him anything. It seems that if he knew he would need to solve for m, he might follow that.

If he is like me, Matthew would wonder where the equation came from to start with.

anonymous · Answer

that's true. I'll just stick with the explanation then. thank you again!

directrix · Answer

If you want to post it here, I'll read it tomorrow if you like.

anonymous · Answer

ok :)