Two secretaries, Sally and Lisa, type at even but difference paces. Sa

The answer is B. The fact they're typing before the point at which they had typed an equal number of characters is irrelevant.

"800 more" means "800 additional". More is not necessarily a comparison.
"The same number" refers to number of characters Sally typed, which is 800 + x, where x is what they typed at the point they had typed the same number of characters. Since we know Lisa also typed x characters previously, the question is really asking

"Lisa types 30 characters per minute. How long does it take her to type 800 characters?"
The answer is 800 / 30 * 1/60 = 800/1800 = 4/9


I don't see any other reasonable interpretation of the question. Even if you interpret "the same number" as being "800" rather than "800 + x", you'll get the same answer.

Key word here is " how long will it take to finish typing 800 characters". This takes into account that Lisa has already typed some words and the question asks how much time it would take to type the remainder of characters as typed by Sally.


The first part is not required. we take it from the point, where both have typed equal number of characters.


Now, If sally has typed 800 characters @ 80 characters/minute, then time taken = \(\frac{800}{80}= 10\) minutes


In 10 minutes, the number of characters typed by Lisa (30 characters/minute) = 10 * 30 = 300 characters


Time it takes for her to type the remaining 800 - 300 = 500 characters = \(\frac{500}{30} = \frac{50}{3}\) minutes


To convert minutes to hours, we divide by 60 = \(\frac{\frac{50}{3}}{60} = \frac{50}{180} = \frac{5}{18}\)


Option E

Arun Kumar

Ahh, I'm embarrassed and didn't read the question carefully. It's how long will it take her to finish typing.

So it should be (800/30 - 800/80)/60 = 5/18