Working together, It takes two computers 10 minutes to send out a company's emall. If it takes the slower computer 30 minutes to do the job on its own, ho long will it take the faster computer to do the job on its own?

Do not do any rounding.

1 answer

To solve this problem, let's denote the time it takes for the faster computer to complete the job on its own as \( x \) minutes.

We know that the slower computer takes 30 minutes to do the job on its own. We can express the work rates of both computers:

  1. The slower computer's work rate is \( \frac{1}{30} \) of the job per minute.
  2. The faster computer's work rate is \( \frac{1}{x} \) of the job per minute.

When both computers work together, their combined work rate is:

\[ \frac{1}{30} + \frac{1}{x} \]

According to the problem, together they can complete the job in 10 minutes. Therefore, their combined work rate can also be expressed as:

\[ \frac{1}{10} \text{ of the job per minute} \]

Setting these two expressions for the combined work rate equal gives us the equation:

\[ \frac{1}{30} + \frac{1}{x} = \frac{1}{10} \]

To solve for \( x \), we first find a common denominator for the left side of the equation. The common denominator of 30 and \( x \) is \( 30x \).

Rewriting the equation gives:

\[ \frac{x}{30x} + \frac{30}{30x} = \frac{3x}{30x} \]

This simplifies to:

\[ \frac{x + 30}{30x} = \frac{1}{10} \]

Next, we cross-multiply:

\[ 10(x + 30) = 30x \]

Expanding the left side:

\[ 10x + 300 = 30x \]

Rearranging gives:

\[ 300 = 30x - 10x \] \[ 300 = 20x \]

Dividing both sides by 20:

\[ x = \frac{300}{20} = 15 \]

Thus, the faster computer can complete the job on its own in \( 15 \) minutes.

Final answer: 15 minutes.