Question

A water tank holds 268 gallons but is leaking at a rate of 3 gallons per week. A second water tank holds 402 gallons but is leaking at a rate of 5 gallons per week. After how many weeks will the amount of water in the two tanks be the same?

Answer 1

Time taken for the tank holding 268 gallons to empty will be:
time=volume/rate=268/3 weeks

Time taken for the tank holding 402 gallons to empty:
time=402/5
the number of weeks required for the amount of water to be the same will be found by calculate the LCM of the time taken by both tanks to empty. This will be:
LCM[402/5,268/3]
=7182 2/5 weeks