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It takes 8 hours for 4 men to paint a room.

How many men would be needed to paint the room in 2 hours?

1 Answer

5 votes

Answer:

16 men would be needed to paint the room in 2 hours

Explanation:

We can use proportion to solve the problem given, but first we need to determine whether it is a direct or indirect proportion.

If the number of men are increase, the time taken to do the work will decrease, If the number of men are decrease, the time taken to do the work will increase. Therefore, this is an indirect proportion.

We are going to arrange the data inversely.

Let x be the number of men needed to paint the room in two hours

8 hours = 2 hours

x = 4 men

Cross-multiply

2×x = 8×4

2x = 32

Divide both-side of the equation by 2

2x/2 = 32/2

x = 16 men

16 men would be needed to paint the room in 2 hours

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