Q:

One member of a gardening team can landscape a new lawn in 36 hours. The other member of the team can do the job in 45 hours. How long would it take to landscape a lawn if both gardeners worked together?

Accepted Solution

A:
Answer:20 hoursStep-by-step explanation:rate and time are inverses of each other.If it takes one 36 hours, so his rate is:1/36It takes another 45 hours, so his rate is:1/45Since they will work together, their combined rate will be:1/36 + 1/45Now, we want the TIME IT WILL TAKE THEM, so we inverse their combined rate, that is we take the combined rate and raise it to -1st power. The calculation is shown below:[tex](\frac{1}{36}+\frac{1}{45})^{-1}\\=(\frac{45+36}{45*36})^{-1}\\=(\frac{81}{1620})^{-1}\\=\frac{1620}{81}\\=20[/tex]Thus, if both work together, it will take them 20 hours