​Maria, an experienced shipping​ clerk, can fill a certain order in 8 hours.Felipe​, a new​ clerk, needs 9 hours to do the same job. Working​ together, how long will it take them to fill the​ order?

The solution is enter your response here ____hours.

1 answer

To find the combined rate of Maria and Felipe, we add their individual rates.

Maria's rate is 1/8 orders per hour (since she can fill the order in 8 hours).
Felipe's rate is 1/9 orders per hour (since he can fill the order in 9 hours).

Together, their combined rate is 1/8 + 1/9 = 17/72 orders per hour.

To find out how long it will take them to fill the order together, we can divide 1 by the combined rate:

1 / (17/72) = 72/17 ≈ 4.24 hours

Therefore, it will take them approximately 4.24 hours to fill the order together.