Question

Joe had eight sections of the fence to paint. He painted 2/3 of each section in one hour. How many hours did it take him to paint all the sections of fence?

Answer 1

1.5 hours

Explanation:

Since Joe painted 2/3 section (2 out of 3 sections) of each section, we can break up the sections into parts of "3".

So 8 sections would have total subsections of 8 * 3 = 24 subsections

He painted 2 subsections of each of the 8 sections, so number of subsections painted would be:

8 * 2 = 16 subsections

There are more 24 - 16 = 8 more subsections to paint

If 1 hour means 16 subsections,

1/16 hour = 1 subjection

Thus,

8 remaining subsections would take:

8 * 1/16 = 8/16 = 1/2 hour

So

Initially 1 hour, then 1/2 hour, so total of 1 + 1/2 = 1.5 hours

So, to paint all sections, he took 1.5 hours