Question

You are remodeling your kitchen. You've contacted two tiling companies who gladly told you how long it took their workers to tile a floor of a similar size. Jim completed half the floor in 8 hours. Pete completed the other half of the floor in 7 hours. If pete can lay 20 more tiles per hour than Jim, at what rate can Jim lay tiles?

Answer 1

Answer: 140 tiles per hour.

Step-by-step explanation:

1. Let's call:

j: Jim's rate.

p: Pete's rate.

2. You know that Jim completed half the floor in 8 hours and Pete completed the other half of the floor in 7 hours, therefore:

$8j=7p$

3. The problem says that Pete can lay 20 more tiles per hour than Jim, this means that:

$p=j+20$

4. Substitute the second expression into the first expression and solve for $j$:

$8j=7(j+20)\\8j=7j+140\\8j-7j=140\\j=140$

5. The answer is: Jim can lay 140 tiles per hour.