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 4hours. Pete completed the other half in 2hours. If Pete can lay 25 more tiles per hour than Jim, at what rate can Jim lay tiles?

Answer 1

Answer: Jim can lay 25 tiles per hour.

Step-by-step explanation:

Let be "x" Jim's rate and "y" Pete's rate.

We know that Jim completed half the floor in 4 hours, then:

$4x$

And Pete completed the other half of the floor in 2 hours, then:

 $2y$

Since Jim completed half the floor and Pete completed the other half:

$4x=2y$       [Equation 1]

We also know that Pete can lay 25 more tiles per hour than Jim, then:

$y=x+25$     [Equation 2]

Then, we can substitute Equation 2 into Equation 1 and solve for "x":

$4x=2(x+25)\\\\4x=2x+50\\\\4x-2x=50\\\\x=\frac{50}{2}\\\\x=25$

Therefore, Jim can lay 25 tiles per hour.