I have been at this for an hour please help

Question

anonymous · Answer

Jason can paint a room in 6 hours. Lorissa can paint a room in only 3 hours.

Which of the following can be used to determine the amount of time it would take for Jason and Lorissa to paint a room together?

 1 over 6 plus 1 over 3 equals 1 over x
 1 over 6 plus 1 over x equals 1 over 3
 1 over x plus 1 over 3 equals 1 over 6
 1 over 3 plus 1 over 6 equals x over 9

anonymous · Answer

@mathstudent55  @Nnesha  @HS_CA  @OregonDuck

anonymous · Answer

Please help me i am clueless

oregonduck · Answer

i think it is A

anonymous · Answer

How?

oregonduck · Answer

cause it is has to be x because together it would take 5 hours

oregonduck · Answer

that is just what i am thinking

mathstudent55 · Answer

Jason paints the room in 6 hours.
He does 1/6 of the job in 1 hour.

Lorissa can paint the room in 3 hours.
She does 1/3 of the job in 1 hour.

Together they take x hours to do the job.
In 1 hour, they do 1/x of the job.

In 1 hour they work:
1/6 + 1/3 = 1/x

mathstudent55 · Answer

Working together it takes them 2 hours.

anonymous · Answer

thank you so much @mathstudent55

mathstudent55 · Answer

You're welcome.
BTW, @OregonDuck, you are correct that the answer is A, but it cannot take 5 hours working together. If Lorissa does the job in 3 hours, working together with Jason must make it faster than 3 hours, like 2 hours, not slower, like 5 hours.

oregonduck · Answer

oh..ok now i get it

mathstudent55 · Answer

Great.