Working It Out with Work Problems

Work problems usually involve two or more people pitching in together to make a lighter load for everyone involved. Different people work at different rates of speed, so some people accomplish more of the total job than others. 

Here are the overriding principals or procedures to use in doing these problems  

A traditional problem is that two or more people get together to paint a house. You assume that everyone has a paint brush, paint, ladder, and any other supplies needed to do the job. Working together, they reduce the amount of time necessary to complete the whole job. 

The Problem Tom, Dick, and Harry arrive early one morning at the job site and get ready to paint a huge, old, Victorian mansion. Tom, working by himself, could paint the whole house in 14 days. It would take Dick 10 days to do the job by himself. And Harry could do the job in 8 days. How long does it take for the three men to do the job working together  

Let x represent the amount of time needed to do the whole job. Then Tom will do y - of the job, Dick will do of the job, and Harry will do of the job. Add the fractions together and set them equal to 1. 

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