Question

Owen can cut a lawn by himself in 3 hours. Jonathan can cut a lawn by himself in 4 hours. They begin to cut Dr. Stegall’s lawn. After 1 hour, Jonathan gets tired and goes home, leaving Owen to finish the job. How long did Owen work to cut the lawn?

Answer 1

Owen worked for approximately 2.333 hours or 2 hours and 20 minutes to cut the lawn.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find out how long Owen worked to cut the lawn, we need to determine how much of the lawn Owen and Jonathan can mow in one hour. We can add their individual rates to find the combined rate. Owen can mow 1/3 of the lawn in one hour (1 lawn in 3 hours), and Jonathan can mow 1/4 of the lawn in one hour (1 lawn in 4 hours). Together, their combined rate is 1/3 + 1/4 = 7/12. After 1 hour, Jonathan leaves, so the remaining time is completed by Owen alone. Owen's rate is 1/3, so we can set up the equation (1/3)x = 7/12, where x represents the number of hours Owen worked. Solving for x, we find that Owen worked for approximately 2.333 hours or 2 hours and 20 minutes.