if 12 people can paint 15 houses in 24 days, how many days would it take for 3 people to paint 5 houses?

Answer 1

1/4 the people, so 4 times as long
1/3 the houses, so 1/3 as long
So, 24 * 4/3 = 32 days

Or, consider that there are 12*24/15 = 96/5 man-days per house
Now multiply that by 5houses/3men = 32 days