Question

Lincoln and Hunter work at a dry cleaners ironing shirts. Lincoln can iron 30 shirts per hour, and Hunter can iron 20 shirts per hour. Lincoln and Hunter worked a combined 15 hours and ironed 350 shirts. Determine the number of hours Lincoln worked and the number of hours Hunter worked.

Answer 1

Answer: Lincoln worked for 5 hours and Hunter worked for 10 hours.

Step-by-step explanation:

Let x represent the number of hours that Lincoln worked.

Let y represent the number of hours that Hunter worked.

Lincoln can iron 30 shirts per hour, and Hunter can iron 20 shirts per hour. They were able to iron 350 shirts in total. This means that

30x + 20y = 350 - - - - - - - - - - - 1

Lincoln and Hunter worked a combined 15 hours

This means that

x + y = 15

Substituting x = 15 - y into equation 1, it becomes

30(15 - y) + 20y = 350

450 - 30y + 20y = 350

- 30y + 20y = 350 - 450

- 10y = - 100

y = - 100/ - 10

y = 10

x = 15 - y = 15 - 10

x = 5