One person does a job in 8 hours and another in 12 hours. How long together?
Working together they take 24/5 hours (about 4.8 hours, or 4 h 48 min).
How to work it out
- 1
Think in rates: in one hour the first does 1/8 of the job and the second does 1/12.
- 2
Together in one hour they do the sum of the rates:
- 3
If they do 20/96 of the job per hour, the whole job takes the reciprocal:
- 4
Check: that is less than 8 hours, the faster worker alone, as it should be ✓
LaTeX source of the formulas on this page
\[ \frac{1}{8} + \frac{1}{12} = \frac{1}{t}\ \Rightarrow\ t = \frac{24}{5} \]
\[ \frac{1}{8} + \frac{1}{12} = \frac{12 + 8}{96} = \frac{20}{96} \]
\[ t = \frac{96}{20} = \frac{24}{5} \approx 4.8\text{ hours} \]Questions
How long do they take together?
Working together they take 24/5 hours (about 4.8 hours, or 4 h 48 min).