Lindsay can paint:

c

If Lindsay & Joseph paint the entire room in 1 hour and lindsay paints 1/x part of room, than Joseph paints (x-1)/x part in one hour. In 20 min or 1/3 (20/60) hour it paints (x-1)/3x part of the room.

'manpreet singh wrote:Lindsay can paint 1/x of a certain room in one hour. If Lindsay and Joseph, working together at their respective rates, can paint the room in one hour, what fraction of the room can Joseph paint in 20 minutes?

1/3x

x/x – 3

(x – 1)/3x

x/x – 1

(x – 1)/x

Ans c

Let the room = 20 units.
Let x = 4.

Since Lindsay paints 1/x of the room in 1 hour, Lindsay's rate = (1/4) * 20 = 5 units per hour.
Since Lindsay and Joseph paint the entire room in 1 hour, their combined rate = 20 units per hour.
Thus, Joseph's rate = (combined rate) - (Lindsay's rate) = 20-5 = 15 units per hour.

In 20 minutes -- the equivalent of 1/3 of an hour -- the amount of work produced by Joseph = r*t = 15 * (1/3) = 5 units.
Thus, the fraction painted by Joseph = 5/20 = 1/4. This is our target.

Now we plug x=4 into the answers to see which yields our target of 1/4.
Only C works:
(x-1)/3x = (4-1)/(3*4) = 3/12 = 1/4.

The correct answer is C.

Thanks guy!

'manpreet singh wrote:Lindsay can paint 1/x of a certain room in one hour. If Lindsay and Joseph, working together at their respective rates, can paint the room in one hour, what fraction of the room can Joseph paint in 20 minutes?

1/3x

x/x – 3

(x – 1)/3x

x/x – 1

(x – 1)/x

We are given that Lindsay's rate to paint a room is 1/x. We are also given that when she works with Joseph, they can paint the room in 1 hour. If we let total work = 1 and j = the number of hours it takes Joseph to paint the room by himself, then Joseph’s rate = 1/j. We can create the following equation and isolate j.

work of Lindsay + work of Joseph = 1

(1/x)(1) + (1/j)(1) = 1

1/x + 1/j = 1

Multiplying the entire equation by xj, we obtain:

j + x = xj

x = xj - j

x = j(x - 1)

x/(x-1) = j

Since j = x/(x-1) and 1/j = Joseph’s rate, Joseph’s rate in terms of x is (x - 1)/x.

Since 20 minutes = 1/3 of an hour, and since work = rate x time, Joseph can complete:

[(x - 1)/x](1/3) = (x - 1)/(3x) of the job in 20 minutes.

Answer: C