Question

A fish tank has 150 gallons of water and is being drained at a rate of 1/2 gallons each second. A second fish tank has 120 gallons of each second. After how many seconds will the 2 fish tanks have the same amount of water?

Answer 1

Answer: after 40 seconds, the two tanks will have the same amount of water.

Explanation:

Let x represent the number of seconds after which both tanks will have the same amount of water.

A fish tank has 150 gallons of water and is being drained at a rate of 1/2 gallons each second. It means that the number of gallons of water that would be in the tank after t seconds is

150 - 0.5t

A second fish tank has 120 gallons and it is being filled at a rate of 1/4 gallons each second. It means that the number of gallons of water that would be in the tank after t seconds is

120 + 0.25t

For the volume of both tanks to he the same, then

120 + 0.25t = 150 - 0.5t

0.25t + 0.5t = 150 - 120

0.75t = 30

t = 40 seconds