Question

Three people who work full-time are to work together on a project, but their total time on the project is to be equivalent to that of only one person working full-time. If one of the people is budgeted for one-half of his time to the project and a second person for one-third of her time, what part of the third worker’s time should be budgeted to this project?

Answer 1

1/6

Explanation:

Let x represent the proportion of time the third person spends on the project. You want ...

1/2 + 1/3 + x = 1 . . . . full-time equivalents

5/6 + x = 1 . . . . simplify

x = 1/6 . . . . . . . subtract 5/6

The third person should budget 1/6 of their time to the project.