Question

richard can break up a fight in 12 minutes, harold can break up a fight in 5 minutes how long will it take them to solve it together pls help

Answer 1

Write out the given information

`\begin{gathered} \text{Time for Richard to break up a fight =12 minutes } \\ \text{Time for harold to break up a fight =5 minutes } \end{gathered}`

Let the time at which both of them work be

`R`

Then

The individual rate will be

`\begin{gathered} \text{Richard}=(1)/(12) \\ \text{And } \\ \text{Harold}=(1)/(5) \end{gathered}`

Then

`(1)/(12)+(1)/(5)=(1)/(R)`

Simplifying fraction, we have

`\begin{gathered} (5+12)/(60)=(1)/(R) \\ \text{Then} \\ (17)/(60)=(1)/(R) \end{gathered}`

Hence

`\begin{gathered} R=(60)/(17) \\ R=3.53 \end{gathered}`

Therefore

It will take both of them 3.53 minutes to solve it together