Sarah and Penelope work at a dry cleaners ironing shirts. Sarah can iron 30 shirts per hour, and Penelope can iron 35 shirts per hour. Sarah worked twice as many hours as Penelope and they ironed 475 shirts between them. Determine the number of hours Sarah worked and the number of hours Penelope worked.

How many hours did sarah work and how many hours did penelope work

1 answer

Let's denote the number of hours Penelope worked as x. Since Sarah worked twice as many hours as Penelope, Sarah worked 2x hours.

In one hour, Sarah can iron 30 shirts, so in 2x hours she can iron 60x shirts.
In one hour, Penelope can iron 35 shirts, so in x hours she can iron 35x shirts.

Together they ironed 475 shirts, so we can write the equation:
60x + 35x = 475
95x = 475
x = 5

So, Penelope worked for 5 hours and Sarah worked for 2 * 5 = 10 hours.