Your neighbor can seal your driveway in 4 hours. Working together, you and your neighbor can seal it in 2.3 hours. How long would it take you to seal it working alone?

Answer 1

Let's denote the time it would take for you to seal the driveway alone as x hours.

Your neighbor's rate of sealing the driveway is 1/4 driveway per hour, and your combined rate of sealing the driveway together is 1/2.3 driveway per hour.

From this, we can set up the equation:

1/x + 1/4 = 1/2.3

Multiplying through by 4 * 2.3 * x, we get:

9.2 + 2.3x = 4x
9.2 = 1.7x
x = 9.2 / 1.7
x = 5.41

Therefore, it would take you 5.41 hours to seal the driveway alone.