Question

Tom can paint a fence in 6 hours. Huck can paint a fence in 5 hours. If Tom takes a 30 minute break, how long will it take them to paint the fence together?

Answer 1

Answer:

4 1/11 hours

Step-by-step explanation:

Tom can paint 1/6 of the fence in an hour

Huck can paint 1/5 of the fence in an hour

Tom takes a half-hour break; we can create this equation:

1/6x - 1/2 + 1/5x = 1

use a denominator of 30:

5x/30 - 15/30 + 6x/30 = 30/30

11x/30 = 45/30

multiply each side by 30/11 to get:

x = 45/11 or 4 1/11