Final answer:
To determine how long it would take for the two printers to copy the dissertation together, we need to find their combined copying rate by using the reciprocal of the sum of their individual copying rates.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine how long it would take for the two printers to copy the dissertation together, we need to find their combined copying rate. Let's say that the OfficeJet printer can copy the dissertation in x minutes and the LaserJet printer can copy it in y minutes. Therefore, their combined copying rate would be:
1/x + 1/y
To find the time it would take for them to copy the dissertation together, we take the reciprocal of their combined copying rate:
1 / (1/x + 1/y)
For example, if the OfficeJet printer can copy the dissertation in 30 minutes and the LaserJet printer can copy it in 45 minutes, their combined copying rate would be:
1/30 + 1/45
And the time it would take for them to copy the dissertation together would be:
1 / (1/30 + 1/45) minutes
The question is about calculating the combined time it takes for an Officejet and a Laserjet printer to copy a dissertation when working together, but it lacks the specific time values for each printer required for solving the problem.
The question seems to be missing the time values for both the Officejet and Laserjet printers regarding how long each takes to copy a dissertation. To calculate the time taken by both machines working together, we would typically use the rates at which they work. Assuming the Officejet copies 'a' pages per minute and the Laserjet copies 'b' pages per minute, if they work together, their combined rate would be 'a+b' pages per minute. To find the time (t) taken for the two printers to copy the dissertation together, we would sum their rates and set it equal to the total number of pages (p) in the dissertation: (1/a + 1/b) = 1/t, solving for t gives us the combined time to copy the dissertation.