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working together, Larry, Moe, and Curly can paint an elephant in 3 minutes. Working alone it would take Larry 10 minutes or Moe 6 minutes. How long will it take for Curly to paint the elephant alone

User Hetaoblog
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1 Answer

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I'm only answering this one because I like the Three Stooges.


What's important in these questions is the rates, work per unit time, add up when we have multiple people.


Let c be Curly's rate in elephants per minute. Larry's rate is 1/10 elephants per minutes and Moe's is 1/6 elephants per minute. For the three of them to get done in three minutes means their collective rate is 1/3 elephants per minute:



1/3 = 1/10 + 1/6 + c



c = -1/10 - 1/6 + 1/3 = -3/30 - 5/30 + 10/30 = 2/30 = \frac 1 {15}


Curly's rate is 1/15 th of an element per minute, so it would take him 15 minutes to paint an elephant.




User Ishwar Gagare
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