Edward A. Falk wrote:
In 00,
Doug wrote:

Assume one person can paint a room in 1 hour, and a second (slower)
person can paint a similar room in 2 hours. How long will it take them
to paint such a room together.

it's an algebra problem. Don't get distracted..lol.

40 minutes.

Yep. It's all in how you frame the problem. In school, we were all
taught stupid formulas like 1/(1/t1 + 1/t2) or whatever, and when we were
taught that stuff, we all asked ourselves "howinthehell am I supposed
to memorize *that*?"

You're not supposed to memorize that. There's a lot that can be learned
from the problem if you give it a chance. Revisit it concentrated on
the units and rates being used. The consequence could have immeasurable
value--in fact, it's sure to.

If you finished that one, calculate the measure of the miter you need on
each piece to make an n-sided rectangular frame. Fun problem. If you
get someone to help you, and you calculate out how long it takes each of
you to paint one piece, you could calculate how long it would take you
to paint them all, working together! ; )