Time, Work and Wages

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Time, Work and Wages

In the problems of Time and Work mostly parameters are asked to find are

a) Time: i) Need to complete a work by more than one person and the ability(alone
time) of worker to do that work.

ii) Time to complete a job.

b) Time needed by a single person to complete a job.

c) Work The amount of total work or a part of total work actually done.

Concept 1:

Total amount of a complete job (assigned job) =1 always, unless specified.

Concept 2:

If a person ‘P’ completes a job alone in t days, then

Alone time for ‘P’= t

Concept 3:

1 day’s work done by any person

1
=
𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒

e.g.
If a person can do a work alone in 12 days, then work done by him in 1 day?
1
12
Here 1 is for day and 12 is his alone time.
Similarly for 2 days it is equal to
2 12
= and for 12 days is = 1 and work is complete i.e. 1
12 12
Concept 4:

Reciprocal of one day’s work gives the alone time i.e., alone time(time to complete a
work by a single person).

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 Time, Work and Wages

1
Alone time =
1 𝑑𝑎𝑦 ′ 𝑠 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘

e.g.
1th
Rajesh can do of work in 1 day then how much time he will take to complete
5
that work?
1
Time taken to complete a work(alone time) = = 5 days
1/5

Concept 5:
When more than one person working(say A and B) on same work, then their
combined 1 day’s work
1 1
1 day’s work = +
𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐴 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐵
e.g.
Two Person A and B can do a work in 10 days and 15 days respectively then what
amount of work is done by A and B together in 1 day ?
Using :
1 1
1 day’s work = +
𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐴 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐵
1 1 3+2 1
+ = =
10 15 30 6
1
1 day’s work will be 𝑡ℎ part of total work.
6

Concept 6:
The reciprocal of combined 1 day’s work gives the time for completion by the
persons working together.
1
i.e. Time for completion =
𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑦 ′ 𝑠 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘
It implies that
If three person, say, A, B and C are working together on a job, then
Time for competition by them
1
′
(𝐴 + 𝐵 + 𝐶) 𝑠 1 𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘
e.g
Three Persons X,Y and Z can do a work alone in 10 days, 12 days and 15 days
respectively. Then, in how many days they can finish their work ?
Then combined one day work will be equal to sum of 1 day’s work of each person.
1 1 1 1th
= + + = part of work
10 12 15 4

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 Time, Work and Wages

Concept 7:

Part of work done at any time say ‘t’ by one person or more persons = t x (1 day’s
work)

e.g.

2
12

Example
A person “Y” can do a job in 21 days, How much of the job is done by him in 7 days
?
His alone time is 21 days for that
1
Mean in one day he complete 𝑡ℎ part of that work and in 7 days:
21
1 7 1
x 7= = th part of work
21 21 3
Example

Two friends A and B can do a work in 8 days and 12 days respectively. Find of amount of work
done by them in 4 days.

Part of work done by A + B in 4 days

4 x (A + B)’s 1 day’s work

You can similarly solve question that implies more than two persons.

Concept 8:

If more than one persons are working for different time schedules to complete a piece of work,
then

i) Assume the time for completion = T

ii) Number of days worked by each person is found with reference to T, if not
mentioned in the problem.
iii) Part of work done by each person is found out by using concept 7.
iv) Sum of the parts of work done by each person = 1, since the job is also complete.
v) Solve to find out unknowns

e.g

Ashok and Neha can complete a work in 20 days and 30 days respectively, They work together
and Ashok leave 5 days before the work is finished. Neha finish the remaining work alone. In
how many days is the total work finished.

Assume for Time Completion = T

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 Time, Work and Wages

Since Ashok leave five days before the work is finished ,

So, Number of Days worked by Ashok = T - 5

And number of days worked by Neha = T

Ashok’s Work + Neha’s work = 1

𝑇−5 𝑇
+ =1
20 30

T = 15

Concept 9:

The ratio of the work done by the two persons in the same time is the inverse ratio of their alone
times.

e.g. If ‘A’ can do a work in 5 days and B can do in 9 days, then in the same time ,

𝐴′ 𝑠 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑘
𝐵′ 𝑠 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑘
Concept 10

𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑄

If a person ‘P’ is ‘n’ times as good a workman as Q, then alone time for P =
𝑛

𝑃′ 𝑠 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑛
And after same time, =
𝑄 ′ 𝑠 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑘 1

e.g.

If A is twice as good a workman as B, then A will be half of the time taken by B to do a certain
piece of work. It also implies that during the same time , the ratio of work done by A and B is
2:1.

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