One person does a job in 4 hours and another in 4 hours. How long together?
Working together they take 2 hours.
How to work it out
- 1
Think in rates: in one hour the first does 1/4 of the job and the second does 1/4.
- 2
Together in one hour they do the sum of the rates:
- 3
If they do 8/16 of the job per hour, the whole job takes the reciprocal:
- 4
Check: that is less than 4 hours, the faster worker alone, as it should be ✓
LaTeX source of the formulas on this page
\[ \frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{4} = \frac{1}{t}\ \Rightarrow\ t = 2 \]
\[ \frac{1}{4} + \frac{1}{4} = \frac{4 + 4}{16} = \frac{8}{16} \]
\[ t = \frac{16}{8} = 2 \approx 2\text{ hours} \]Questions
How long do they take together?
Working together they take 2 hours.