Working alone at their respective constant rates, Ajay can complete a ...
Solution:
Step 1: Find their individual rates
Let's assume the job is to paint a room. Ajay can paint the room in 4 hours, so he can paint 1/4 of the room in an hour. Similarly, Firoz can paint 1/3 of the room in an hour.
Step 2: Find their combined rate
When they work together, their combined rate is the sum of their individual rates. So, their combined rate is:
1/4 + 1/3 = 7/12
This means that together, they can paint 7/12 of the room in an hour.
Step 3: Find the total work done
Since they completed the job in 2 hours, we know that the total work done is 1. (Because they completed the whole job.)
Step 4: Find Firoz's work rate
Let's assume Firoz took breaks of length x minutes each time. We know that Ajay worked the whole 2 hours, so he completed the entire job. This means that Firoz also completed the entire job, but he took breaks.
Let's represent Firoz's work rate as r. Then, we know that:
(2/3)r + (x/60)(3/3)r = 1
The first term represents the work Firoz did while working for 2/3 of the time (since he took 3 breaks of equal length). The second term represents the work Firoz did while taking breaks. The (x/60) factor is because we need to convert the break time from minutes to hours to match the units of the work rate.
Simplifying this equation, we get:
(2/3 + x/20)r = 1
Step 5: Solve for x
We can solve for x by rearranging the equation we found in step 4:
x = (20/3)(1 - r)
Step 6: Find Firoz's work rate
We can use the equation we found in step 4 to solve for r:
(2/3 + x/20)r = 1
(2/3 + (20/3)(1 - r)/20)r = 1
(2/3 + (1 - r)/3)r = 1
(2 + 1 - r)r/3 = 1
(3 - r)r/3 = 1
3 - r = 3/r
r^2 - 3r + 3 = 0
Using the quadratic formula, we get:
r = (3 ± √3)i
Since r represents a work rate, it must be positive, so we can ignore the negative solution. Therefore, Firoz's work rate is:
r = (3 + √3)/3
Step 7: Find the length of Firoz's breaks
Finally, we can use the equation we found in step 5 to find the length of F