Anita can clean a typical pool in 8 hours. Chao can clean a typical pool in 6 hours. How long should it take Anita and Chao working together to clean a typical pool? Show all your work. Leave your final answer as an integer or reduced fraction.

Answer 1

First, calculate Anita's rate of cleaning per hour:
Anita can clean a pool in 8 hours, so her rate is 1 pool / 8 hours = 1/8 pool per hour.

Next, calculate Chao's rate of cleaning per hour:
Chao can clean a pool in 6 hours, so his rate is 1 pool / 6 hours = 1/6 pool per hour.

When Anita and Chao work together, their rates of cleaning will add up:
Anita's rate + Chao's rate = 1/8 + 1/6 = 3/24 + 4/24 = 7/24

This means that when Anita and Chao work together, they can clean 7/24 of a pool per hour.

To find out how long it will take them to clean a whole pool working together, divide 1 pool by their combined rate:
1 pool / (7/24 pool per hour) = 24/7 hours

Therefore, it will take Anita and Chao 24/7 hours (or approximately 3.43 hours) working together to clean a typical pool.