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Tommy can paint a fence in 5 hours. If his friend Huck helps, they can paint the fence in 1 hour. How fast could Huck paint the fence by himself?

User Aristona
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

Huck can paint the fence by himself in 1 hour and 15 minutes, as determined by subtracting Tommy's work rate from their combined work rate and then finding the reciprocal of Huck's rate.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find out how fast Huck can paint the fence by himself, we need to understand the concept of work rates. Tommy's rate of painting the fence is one fence in 5 hours, so his rate is 1/5 of a fence per hour. When Huck helps Tommy, together they can paint the fence in 1 hour, so their combined rate is 1 fence per hour. To find Huck's rate, we want to subtract Tommy's rate from their combined rate.

The combined rate is 1 fence per hour, and Tommy's rate is 1/5 of a fence per hour, so Huck's rate would be:

1 fence/hour - 1/5 fence/hour = 4/5 fence/hour.

Therefore, Huck could paint the fence by himself in 5/4 hours, or 1 hour and 15 minutes, because 1 divided by 4/5 is equal to 5/4.

User Thiagoss
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