Setting up Equations

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Tom is painting a fence feet long. He starts at the West end of the fence and paints at a rate of feet per hour. After hours, Huck joins Tom and begins painting from the East end of the fence at a rate of feet per hour. After hours of the two boys painting at the same time, Tom leaves Huck to finish the job by himself.

If Huck completes painting the entire fence after Tom leaves, how many more hours will Huck work than Tom?

$6\ hours$

$10\ hours$

$4\ hours$

$3\ hours$

$5\ hours$

Explanation

Tom paints for a total of hours (2 on his own, 2 with Huck's help). Since he paints at a rate of feet per hour, use the formula

$distance = rate \times time$ (or )

to determine the total length of the fence Tom paints.

feet

Subtracting this from the total length of the fence feet gives the length of the fence Tom will NOT paint: feet. If Huck finishes the job, he will paint that feet of the fence. Using , we can determine how long this will take Huck to do:

hours.

If Huck works hours and Tom works hours, he works more hours than Tom.