Renee can sew a 25-square-foot quilt in 16 hours. Genera can sew the same size quilt in 12 hours. How long would it take them to sew the quilt working together?
First let us say that if a 25-square-foot quilt is done that is counted as 1 job. So the rate of Renee is 1 job/16 hours. The rate of Genera is 1/12. To solve the time to finish one job when both are working, we represent it with an algebraic expression as follows:
\(\frac{1}{16} + \frac{1}{12} = \frac{1}{x}\)
Then x = 6 6/7 hours.