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pravinpillai2015
Working at constant rate, pump X pumped out half of the water in a flooded basement in 4 hours. The pump Y was started and the two pumps, working independently at their respective constant rates, pumped out rest of the water in 3 hours. How many hours would it have taken pump Y , operating alone at its own constant rate, to pump out all of the water that was pumped out of the basement?

a. 10
b. 12
c. 14
d. 18
e. 24



Almost the same question to practice: https://gmatclub.com/forum/working-alon ... 16023.html

Hope it helps.
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pravinpillai2015
Working at constant rate, pump X pumped out half of the water in a flooded basement in 4 hours. The pump Y was started and the two pumps, working independently at their respective constant rates, pumped out rest of the water in 3 hours. How many hours would it have taken pump Y , operating alone at its own constant rate, to pump out all of the water that was pumped out of the basement?

a. 10
b. 12
c. 14
d. 18
e. 24


If the pump X pumped out half the water in 4 hours, it will pump out the entire water in 8 hours.
Similarly, the pump Y was started and the two pumps operating together are able to pump out
the entire water in 3 hours.

Assume the total capacity of the pump to be 96 units.

So, the pump X must be pumping out 12 units/hour. Since, both the pumps working together
pump out the remainder of the water in 3 hours, their combined capacity will be 16 units/hour.
Hence, pump Y must be pumping out 4 units/hour.

Therefore, Pump Y alone will take \(\frac{96}{4}\) = 24 hours(Option E)
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Suppose X extracts x liters/hour, while Y extracts y liters/hour
In 4 hours, X extracts 4 x liters
This is half of the basement capacity. So, total volume of water in the basement = 8x liters

After 4 hours, Y was started as well. They flush the remaining 4 x in 3 hours.

In 3 hours, X and Y combined would flush 3*(x + y)

It is given that 3*(x + y) = 4x
This gives x = 3y

Operating alone how much would Y take?

Total water = 8x
Y's capacity = y liters/hour

So, time taken by Y = 8x/y

We know x = 3y
So, x/y = 3

So, time taken by Y = 8x/y = 8*3 = 24
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pravinpillai2015
Working at constant rate, pump X pumped out half of the water in a flooded basement in 4 hours. The pump Y was started and the two pumps, working independently at their respective constant rates, pumped out rest of the water in 3 hours. How many hours would it have taken pump Y , operating alone at its own constant rate, to pump out all of the water that was pumped out of the basement?

a. 10
b. 12
c. 14
d. 18
e. 24

Trying plugging:

We are looking at half capacities throughout the problem, so we could half the answer choices for simplicity. If X = 4h -> rate = 1/4; X + Y = 3h -> rate = 1/3. We can start plugging answer choices from B:


B: 12 -> 6 h -> 1/6 + 1/4 = 5/12 - almost 1/2 or too big for the 1/3 we need, that means we need a smaller Y rate or higher Y hours
D: 18 -> 9 h -> 1/9 + 1/4 = 13/36 - if we compare with 1/3 or 13/39, 13/ 36 is still a bit big, but closer to what we need -> answer E
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A alternative approach:

We can infer that x takes 8 hours to remove water completely, now:

We see that X worked 7 hours - 4+3 hours, and was left with only one hours of work.

For that 1 hour of work Y took 3 hours, so for 8 hours of X's work Y will take 8*3 = 24 hours
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pump x was able to do 1/2 of the job in 4 hrs
pump x would do the entire work alone in 1/8 hrs
therefore, 1/x = 1/8 --- eqn (1)

since x and y are now working together, they finish the entire thing in 3 hrs
total time taken would be 6 hrs

pump x + pump y = 1/x + 1/y= 1/6 ---- eqn (2)

1/8+ 1/y = 1/6
1/y = 1/6- 1/8
1/y = 8-6/48
1/y = 1/24

therefore, y = 24
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