Answer: about 3 hours and 5 minutes
Step-by-step explanation:
Sally can paint [tex]\frac{1}{5}[/tex] of the room in an hour while Steve is able to paint [tex]\frac{1}{8}[/tex] in an hour.
To find how long it would take to paint the room together you add the two fractions together:
[tex]\frac{1}{5} + \frac{1}{8}[/tex]
To add or subtract fractions we find a common denominator and add the numenators:
[tex]\frac{1}{5} = \frac{8}{40}[/tex] [tex]\frac{1}{8} = \frac{5}{40}[/tex]
[tex]\frac{5}{40} + \frac{8}{40} = \frac{13}{40}[/tex]
The inverse of the fraction is hours per room = [tex]\frac{40}{13}[/tex]
[tex]\frac{40}{13}[/tex] = 3.077 = about 3 hours and 5 minutes.
