for a certain job,A and B together worked for 6/5 hours, B

(A+B) + (B+C) + (C+A) = 6/5+3/2+2 = 47/10
In this time 3 times work is done
2A+2B+2C will do one job in 47/30 hours
so
A+B+C will need 47/60 hrs to do one job, working together

Thus they need 47 minutes to complete one job.

Praet,

I think everyone is confused by your syntax.

Did the three of them complete the job once total or once each?

Do you mean that it takes A and B 6/5 hrs, working together, to do the entire job?

Would you mind restating the question?

I got 1 hour

1/A + 1/B = 5/6

1/B + 1/C = 2/3

1/A + 1/C = 1/2

A = 3 , B = 2, C = 6

so...

1/2 + 1/3 + 1/6 = 1

Dont know if this is correct, plus it took me a bit of time.

I have a feeling that Praetorian is off this forum. Many Q without answers and no replies from him.

Hmm,
calnhob's work seems right.

Hi stoolfi,

what is your interpretation of the problem and what is your answer ?

anand,

I interpret the question the same way that you do-- and I think your approach is right.

But 47 minutes is an ugly answer. I bet calnhob has interpreted the syntax correctlyand is right, just by the simplicity of his answer.

And also, since we've hijacked the board today, and are doing more chatting than GMAT work, I'd like to note that I wonder how Paul is doing on his test...

Hell yeah, I dont want these chats to contribute to my posts by more than 10% in numbers.
Paul will do good. He has been good.

Cool!

Anyone come up with a better way to solve it?

The thinking didnt take that long, just the work of solving for A,B,C

Hey Anand,

I do not see any difference between yours and calnhob's way of interpreting this problem.

Looking at your logic, I believe that you also considered that

A and B together took 6/5 hours to complete the ENTIRE job.
B and C together took 3/2 hours to complete the ENTIRE job.
A and C together took 2 hours to complete the ENTIRE job.

This is the same way in which calnhob interpreted the problem. But I think he applied the right formula.

So your statement "In 47/10 hours the work is completed 3 times is correct" (If each pair works once and finishes the entire job)

However, I think it is not correct to say that

If 2A + 2B + 2C can complete 3 times a job in 47/10 minutes, it will take 47/30 minutes to complete the job once. The proportionality can not be applied here because everybody has different rate of working. Here the effeciency factor comes in to play. (consider a simple example where all the players work with a different rates and it will be more clear)

In my opinion, the work related problems can not be solved by applying the straight formula. Because the longer one takes to finish a job, he lesser is the amount of work that can be finished in unit time.