One person does a job in 2 hours and another in 11 hours. How long together?
Working together they take 22/13 hours (about 1.6923077 hours, or 1 h 42 min).
How to work it out
- 1
Think in rates: in one hour the first does 1/2 of the job and the second does 1/11.
- 2
Together in one hour they do the sum of the rates:
- 3
If they do 13/22 of the job per hour, the whole job takes the reciprocal:
- 4
Check: that is less than 2 hours, the faster worker alone, as it should be ✓
LaTeX source of the formulas on this page
\[ \frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{11} = \frac{1}{t}\ \Rightarrow\ t = \frac{22}{13} \]
\[ \frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{11} = \frac{11 + 2}{22} = \frac{13}{22} \]
\[ t = \frac{22}{13} = \frac{22}{13} \approx 1.6923077\text{ hours} \]Questions
How long do they take together?
Working together they take 22/13 hours (about 1.6923077 hours, or 1 h 42 min).