25 men reap a field in 20 days

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25 men reap a field in 20 days

by nhai2003 » Fri Jul 10, 2009 10:55 pm
25 men reap a field in 20 days. when should 15 men leave the work if the whole field is to be reaped in 37-1/2 days after they leave the work?

I dont know where to start????

Thanks guys

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by scoobydooby » Fri Jul 10, 2009 11:08 pm
25 men take 20 days to complete a piece of work
=> 1 man takes 500 days to complete the piece of work.
=> 1 mans 1 day work=1/500 of the total work
=>10 mens 1 day work=1/500*10 of total work
=>10 mens 37.5 days work= 1/500*10*75/2=3/4 work

so 1/4 of the work must have been done by all 25 men before 15 of them left.

to do full work 25 men take 20 days
=>to do 1/4 work, 25 men will take 20/4=5 days.

so 15 men should leave after 5 days

(it looks clumsy, am sure theres a shorter/smarter solution somewhere)

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by adam15 » Sun May 09, 2010 3:07 pm
I used this method to solve the problem.
but the result is different with the previous post could anyone tell me what is wrong?
let "t" be the time required by the first 25 men .
we know that 25 do the job in 20 days. their total production is 20*25
in the same way for the first part of job where 25 men were involved
25*t+(25-15)*((75/2)-t)=25*20
solving this equation yields
t=25/3.

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by clock60 » Sun May 09, 2010 3:24 pm
agree with answer 5-days
let it be total job-500,and rate of given worker=1, x-number of days they worked all together
25*1*x+(25-15)*1*37 1/2=500
x=5

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by harshavardhanc » Mon May 10, 2010 12:13 am
clock60 wrote:agree with answer 5-days
let it be total job-500,and rate of given worker=1, x-number of days they worked all together
25*1*x+(25-15)*1*37 1/2=500
x=5
it should be 5 days.

per person per day of work is 1/(25*20) = 1/500

see that the question says : 37.5 days after they leave the work. That means, for these 37.5 days, 10 workers are on the job who will do (37.5 *10)/500 = 3/4th of the total work. That means, 1/4th is already done by 25 people.

1/4 of the work will be done in 20/4 = 5 days. :)

HTH



in these
Regards,
Harsha

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by rbansal » Mon May 16, 2011 4:28 pm
Hello,

When you got that 1 man takes 500 days to complete the task. I understand you just did 25 x 20 but can you please explain the rational behind it. I am getting very stuck on why 1 man would take 500 days to complete the task .

Thank you,

RB

scoobydooby wrote:25 men take 20 days to complete a piece of work
=> 1 man takes 500 days to complete the piece of work.
=> 1 mans 1 day work=1/500 of the total work
=>10 mens 1 day work=1/500*10 of total work
=>10 mens 37.5 days work= 1/500*10*75/2=3/4 work

so 1/4 of the work must have been done by all 25 men before 15 of them left.

to do full work 25 men take 20 days
=>to do 1/4 work, 25 men will take 20/4=5 days.

so 15 men should leave after 5 days

(it looks clumsy, am sure theres a shorter/smarter solution somewhere)

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by GMATGuruNY » Mon May 16, 2011 4:57 pm
nhai2003 wrote:25 men reap a field in 20 days. when should 15 men leave the work if the whole field is to be reaped in 37-1/2 days after they leave the work?

I dont know where to start????

Thanks guys
Let rate per man = 1 unit per day.
Work completed by the 25 men each day = 25*1 = 25 units.
Over 20 days, total work = 20*25 = 500 units.

After the 15 men leave, rate for the 10 remaining men = 10 units per day.
Work completed by these 10 men over the last 37.5 days = 10 * 37.5 = 375 units.

Thus, work to be completed before the 15 men leave = 500-375 = 125 units.
Time for all 25 men to complete 125 units = w/r = 125/25 = 5 days.
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by GmatKiss » Sat Aug 20, 2011 6:04 am
GMATGuruNY wrote:
nhai2003 wrote:25 men reap a field in 20 days. when should 15 men leave the work if the whole field is to be reaped in 37-1/2 days after they leave the work?

I dont know where to start????

Thanks guys
Let rate per man = 1 unit per day.
Work completed by the 25 men each day = 25*1 = 25 units.
Over 20 days, total work = 20*25 = 500 units.

After the 15 men leave, rate for the 10 remaining men = 10 units per day.
Work completed by these 10 men over the last 37.5 days = 10 * 37.5 = 375 units.

Thus, work to be completed before the 15 men leave = 500-375 = 125 units.
Time for all 25 men to complete 125 units = w/r = 125/25 = 5 days.
Thanks GMATGuru, u made the simplest amd the effective solution!! :)