Grow Your Website Conversions

Save Time and Money. Get 20+ Tools to Increase Your Sales and Email Subscribers.

Zotabox Marketing Tools OPEN

How to solve more Time and Work problems in simpler steps, type 2

Submitted by Atanu Chaudhuri on Wed, 23/03/2016 - 13:57

De ne work amount in terms of days of work and number of work-agents for elegant solution

The problems involving Time and work form an important part of most of the competitive job tests such as SSC CGL, Bank POs etc. These
problems are taught during middle schools.

To work out these problems, it is usually assumed that a work-agent (say a man) takes certain number of time units T (usually days or hours) to
1
complete the work. So the work rate of the agent in one time unit (a day or an hour) is expressed as th portion of the total amount of work.
T

The reason why this work rate in terms of work portion per unit time is the most important concept in Time and Work problems is - it makes
possible summing up of efforts of more than one type of work agents working together at different work rates over unit time. This is the core
concept behind the deductions of Time and Work problem of any type.

In conventional approaches, as in any conventiional approach, this core concept is used in a straightforward manner. 

Example: For example, in case of 4 men and 4 women working independently completing a job in 24 days and 12 days respectively, if we are asked
to nd the number of days taken to complete the job by 4 men and 4 women working together, by the conventional approach, we derive the per day
work rate of 1 man and 1 woman as,

1 1 1 1
= portion of work, and = portion of work.
4 × 24 96 4 × 12 48

When these two teams work together for 1 day, we would now be able to sum up their efforts in one day as,

4
+
4
=
3
=
1
portion of work. 
96 48 24 8
We now arrive at the desired result using unitary method. The number of days that the two teams would take to complete the job working together
would just be inverse of the per day work portion, that is, 8 number of days.

This approach seems to be a bit complex as it deals with inverses, but this is the usual method followed.

First improvement
We have improved this situation in our last post (https://mail.suresolv.com/e cient-math-problem-solving/how-solve-time-and-work-problems-simpler-steps-type-1) by
de ning the A as the per day work rate of work agent A, instead of conventional approach of de ning, work agent takes A number of days to
1
complete the work and hence, per day work rate of A becomes , an inverse of A .
A

By our new de nition, we didn't reduce calculations, but increased the comfort level of deductions by eliminating all inverse of variables.

Today we would introduce a second, more powerful technique in dealing with a large portion of Time and Work problems elegantly and quickly.

Second improvement - the Manday technique

For a large number Time and Work problems, a second problem solving strategy makes the process of solving the problems a breeze. We will
explain this second special concept by solving two chosen problems. We will as usual show conventional solutions for comparison of effectiveness
of the approaches - the conventional approach and the problem solver's approach.

Q1. A work can be completed by 12 men in 24 days and 12 women in 12 days. In how many days would the 12 men and 12 women working together
complete the work?

a. 5 days
b. 6 days
c. 8 days
d. 16 days

Solution 1:
The new technique that we will introduce here is the concept of expressing amount of work in terms of mandays, or woman days, as applicable.

As 12 men complete the job in 24 days, the work amount is 12 × 24 = 288 mandays.

The concept of 1 manday work is simply the amount of work that 1 man will be able to do in 1 day.

“
This powerful manday concept not only expresses the per day rate of work for 1 man, it also is used for expressing the total amount of
work. It serves two purposes. Thus it gains its effectiveness.

For this group of men the total work amount is 288 man days. If 6 such men work, the number of days they would take to nish the work would
simply be 288 ÷ 6 = 48 days.

Coming back to our problem, similarly for women, the amount of work is, 144 womandays. It leads to,

144 womandays = 288 mandays,

Or, 1 womanday = 2 mandays.

Or, 12 womandays = 24 mandays.

Thus if 12 men and 12 women work together for a day, it is equivalent to (12 + 24) = 36 men working on the job for 1 day.

The total work amount being 288 mandays, the number of days taken to complete the job in this case will be, 288 ÷ 36 = 8 days.

Answer: Option c: 8 days.

Key concepts used:

The use of manday concept as a measure of work amount greatly simpli es Time and Work problems on many occasions. The reason of this power
in the concept lies in 
 “
Combining the days with men in a single valued variable - the work amount. It is a rich concept then, as it combines effect of two
variables, the number of men and how many days they take to complete the job.

For example, if 4 men do a job in 10 days, the work amount is 40 mandays. Now if you ask, in how many days 8 men would complete this job,
instantly we can nd the answer as total work amount (in terms of mandays) divided by number of men resulting in 5 here.

The concept is not only easy to use, it also is intuitive isn't it? If certain number of mandays is divided by a number of men we will de nitely get the
result as number of days. There would be little scope for any confusion.

In our problem, 12 women do the same work in 12 days. So in the situation of women working, the same work now  amounts to 144 womandays.
Equating the two immediately shows that a woman does the job equivalent to 2 men in a day.

Still simpler solution in 20 secs - all in mind, Solution 2

If you analyze the gures quickly you would immediately see that same number of women do the same amount of work in half the time as men. The
basic mechanisms in Time and Work problems are,

“
Number of days to do a work is inversely proportional to number of workers as well as the rate of work. If workers increase in number,
they can nish the work in lesser number of days and if work rate of each worker increases that would also result in decreased number
of days to complete the work.

Thus we can conclude from the observation that when one woman does double the work of a man, one men's team and one women's team with
same numbers together working is equivalent to three men's team working. It means, the combined team will take one third the number of days that
1 men's team took. We don't even have to divide 288 by 36, dividing 24 days by 3 is enough.

If you have noticed, in this solution we have used Abstraction technique (https://mail.suresolv.com/abstraction-technique) and took each unit as 1 work
agent, shedding the details of constituent 12 men or 12 women.

Conventional approach - Solution 3

By the problem de nition, we can say,

1
in 1 day 12 men does th portion of work, and similiarly,
24

1
in 1 day 12 women does th portion of work.
12

Together the two teams do in one day,

1 1 3 1
+ = = th portion of work.
24 12 24 8

Thus the two teams working together would nish the job in 8 days, as before.

Conventional approach - Solution 4

In a less analytical conventional approach the following solution is also possible.

By the problem de nition, we can say,

1
in 1 day 12 men does th portion of work. So,
24

1 1
In 1 day 1 man does = th portion of work.
12 × 24 288

Similarly, for women,

1 1
In 1 day 1 woman does = th portion of work.
12 × 12 144

Thus,

 1 1 3
In 1 day 1 man and 1 woman working together complete + = th portion of work.
288 144 288

And nally,

12 men and 12 women working together complete in 1 day,

3 1
12 × = th portion of work.
288 8

That means the two teams, working together, would take 8 days to complete the work.

Please don't say, I have made up this solution by myself.

We will deal with a very typical problem now, where we go on using the manday concept till we reach the solution.

Q2. In 42 days 40 men complete a work. As it happened, instead of all of them working together to nish the job, they started working together, but
at the end of every 10th day 5 men left. In how many days would then the work be completed?

a. 61 days
b. 63 days
c. 65 days
d. 62 days

Solution:
By problem statement the total work amount is 40 × 42 = 1680 mandays.

Now we will enumerate what happens in every 10 days. But while doing so we look at the choice values using the values as our Free resource and
decide to proceed our enumeration till 60th day. Only after the 60th day enumeration we will review the situation.

1st 10 days: total number of days 10: number of days 10 : number of men working 40: work completed = 400 mandays: total work completed 400
mandays.

2nd 10 days: total number of days 20: number of days 10: number of men working 35: work completed = 350 mandays: total work completed 750
mandays.

3rd 10 days: total number of days 30: number of days 10: number of men working 30: work completed = 300 mandays: total work completed 1050
mandays.

4th 10 days: total number of days 40: number of days 10: number of men working 25: work completed = 250 mandays: total work completed 1300
mandays.

5th 10 days: total number of days 50: number of days 10: number of men working 20: work completed = 200 mandays: total work completed 1500
mandays.

6th 10 days: total number of days 60: number of days 10: number of men working 15: work completed = 150 mandays: total work completed 1650
mandays.

So at the end of 60th day or at the beginning of 61st day, 10 men are left and work left to be done is 1680 − 1650 = 30 mandays.

Thus in 3 more days the whole work would be completed.

Total number of days is then 63 days.

Answer: Option b: 63 days.

Key concepts used:

We have used the Mandays technique to x the total amount of work at the very beginning.

As the number of men reduces at the end of every 10th day, we decide to use Enumeration technique (https://mail.suresolv.com/enumeration-technique) as
the easiest basic approach at this point.

But we also look at the choice values and using our Free resource use principle (https://mail.suresolv.com/principle-free-resource-use) we decide to review the
number of days spent, number of mandays of work left and number of men left at the end of 60th day to easily arrive at the desired result.

We won't show you the solution by conventional approach here.

It is up to you to try to solve this problem in any other way.

We are sure that in this way you will gain more insight into the inner workings of this important topic of Time and Work problems.


Useful resources to refer to
Guidelines, Tutorials and Quick methods to solve Work Time problems
7 steps for sure success in SSC CGL Tier 1 and Tier 2 competitive tests (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl/7-steps-sure-success-ssc-cgl-tier-1-and-tier-2-
competitive-tests)

How to solve Arithmetic problems on Work-time, Work-wages and Pipes-cisterns (https://mail.suresolv.com/basic-maths/how-solve-arithmetic-problems-work-

time-work-wage-and-pipes-cisterns)

Basic concepts on Arithmetic problems on Speed-time-distance Train-running Boat-rivers (https://mail.suresolv.com/basic-maths/basic-concepts-problems-

speed-time-distance-train-running-and-boats-rivers)

How to solve a hard CAT level Time and Work problem in a few con dent steps 3 (https://mail.suresolv.com/e cient-math-problem-solving/how-solve-hard-cat-
level-time-and-work-problem-few-con dent-steps-3)

How to solve a hard CAT level Time and Work problem in a few con dent steps 2 (https://mail.suresolv.com/e cient-math-problem-solving/how-solve-hard-cat-
level-time-and-work-problem-few-con dent-steps-2)

How to solve a hard CAT level Time and Work problem in few con dent steps 1 (https://mail.suresolv.com/e cient-math-problem-solving/how-solve-hard-cat-level-
time-and-work-problem-few-con dent-steps-1)

How to solve Work-time problems in simpler steps type 1 (https://mail.suresolv.com/e cient-math-problem-solving/how-solve-time-and-work-problems-simpler-steps-

type-1)

How to solve Work-time problem in simpler steps type 2

How to solve a GATE level long Work Time problem analytically in a few steps 1 (https://mail.suresolv.com/e cient-math-problem-solving/how-solve-gate-level-long-
work-time-problem-analytically-few-steps-1)

How to solve di cult Work time problems in simpler steps, type 3 (https://mail.suresolv.com/e cient-math-problem-solving/how-solve-di cult-time-and-work-
problems-simpler-steps-type-3)

SSC CGL Tier II level Work Time, Work wages and Pipes cisterns Question and solution sets
SSC CGL Tier II level Solution set 26 on Time-work Work-wages 2 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl-tier-ii/ssc-cgl-tier-ii-level-solution-set-26-time-and-work-
problems-2)

SSC CGL Tier II level Question set 26 on Time-work Work-wages 2 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl-tier-ii/ssc-cgl-tier-ii-level-question-set-26-time-and-work-

problems-2)

SSC CGL Tier II level Solution Set 10 on Time-work Work-wages Pipes-cisterns 1 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl-tier-ii/ssc-cgl-tier-ii-level-solution-set-10-time-
work-work-wages-pipes-cisterns-1)

SSC CGL Tier II level Question Set 10 on Time-work Work-wages Pipes-cisterns 1 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl-tier-ii/ssc-cgl-tier-ii-level-question-set-10-
time-work-work-wages-pipes-cisterns-1)

SSC CGL level Work time, Work wages and Pipes cisterns Question and solution sets
SSC CGL level Solution Set 72 on Work time problems 7 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl/ssc-cgl-level-solution-set-72-work-time-problems-7)

SSC CGL level Question Set 72 on Work time problems 7 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl/ssc-cgl-level-question-set-72-work-time-problems-7)

SSC CGL level Solution Set 67 on Time-work Work-wages Pipes-cisterns 6 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl/ssc-cgl-level-solution-set-67-time-work-work-wages-

pipes-cisterns-6)

SSC CGL level Question Set 67 on Time-work Work-wages Pipes-cisterns 6 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl/ssc-cgl-level-question-set-67-time-work-work-wages-

pipes-cisterns-6)

SSC CGL level Solution Set 66 on Time-Work Work-Wages Pipes-Cisterns 5 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl/ssc-cgl-level-solution-set-66-time-work-work-wages-

pipes-cisterns-5)

SSC CGL level Question Set 66 on Time-Work Work-Wages Pipes-Cisterns 5 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl/ssc-cgl-level-question-set-66-time-work-work-wages-

pipes-cisterns-5)

SSC CGL level Solution Set 49 on Time and work in simpler steps 4 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl/ssc-cgl-level-solution-set-49-time-and-work-problems-simpler-
steps-4)

SSC CGL level Question Set 49 on Time and work in simpler steps 4 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl/ssc-cgl-level-question-set-49-time-and-work-problems-simpler-
steps-4)

SSC CGL level Solution Set 48 on Time and work in simpler steps 3 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl/ssc-cgl-level-solution-set-48-time-and-work-problems-simpler-
steps-3)

SSC CGL level Question Set 48 on Time and work in simpler steps 3 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl/ssc-cgl-level-question-set-48-time-and-work-problems-simpler-
steps-3)

SSC CGL level Solution Set 44 on Work-time Pipes-cisterns Speed-time-distance (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl/ssc-cgl-level-solution-set-44-work-time-pipes-

cisterns-speed-time-distance)

SSC CGL level Question Set 44 on Work-time Pipes-cisterns Speed-time-distance (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl/ssc-cgl-level-question-set-44-work-time- 

pipes-cisterns-speed-time-distance)
SSC CGL level Solution Set 32 on work-time, work-wage, pipes-cisterns (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl/ssc-cgl-level-solution-set-32-work-time-work-wages-
pipes-cisterns)

SSC CGL level Question Set 32 on work-time, work-wages, pipes-cisterns (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-cgl/ssc-cgl-level-question-set-32-work-time-work-wages-

pipes-cisterns)

SSC CHSL level Solved question sets on Work time

SSC CHSL Solved question set 2 Work time 2 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-chsl/ssc-chsl-solved-question-set-2-work-time-2)

SSC CHSL Solved question set 1 Work time 1 (https://mail.suresolv.com/ssc-chsl/ssc-chsl-solved-question-set-1-work-time-1)

Bank clerk level Solved question sets on Work time

Bank clerk level solved question set 2 work time 2 (https://mail.suresolv.com/bank-clerk/bank-clerk-level-solved-question-set-2-work-time-2)

Bank clerk level solved question set 1 work time 1 (https://mail.suresolv.com/bank-clerk/bank-clerk-level-solved-question-set-1-work-time-1)

Exams (/exams) E cient Math problem solving (/e cient-math-problem-solving) Time and Work problems (/time-and-work-problems) School maths (/school-maths)

Mandays technique (/mandays-technique) Abstraction technique (/abstraction-technique) Middle school level (/middle-school-level) SSC CGL (/ssc-cgl)

Student resources (/student-resources) Competitive tests (/competitive-tests) Enumeration technique (/enumeration-technique)

Problem solving techniques (/problem-solving-techniques) E cient problem solving (/e cient-problem-solving) Maths (/maths)

Most effective solutions (/most-effective-solutions) Problem solving approaches (/problem-solving-approaches) Problem solving strategies (/problem-solving-strategies)

Shortcut solns (/shortcut-solns) Math made easy (/math-made-easy) De nition tuning approach (/de nition-tuning-approach)

Banking services exams (/banking-services-exams) Bank PO (/bank-po) SBI PO (/sbi-po) IBPS PO (/ibps-po) CAT (/cat) GMAT (/gmat) eLitmus (/elitmus)

AMCAT (/amcat) SSC CGL Tier II (/ssc-cgl-tier-ii) Work rate technique (/work-rate-technique) SSC CHSL (/ssc-chsl) SSC Matric level (/ssc-matric-level) IAS (/ias)

UPSC Civil services (/upsc-civil-services) WBCS (/wbcs) PSC (/psc) RRB (/rrb) TET (/tet) SBI Clerk (/sbi-clerk) IBPS Clerk (/ibps-clerk) LIC AAO (/lic-aao) RBI (/rbi)

AFCAT (/afcat) UPSC CDS (/upsc-cds) Arithmetic (/arithmetic) Aptitude test (/aptitude-test) Innovative math (/innovative-math) Quick math (/quick-math)

Easy math (/easy-math) Conceptual math (/conceptual-math) Time and work math (/time-and-work-math) Work and time problems (/work-and-time-problems)

Work and time maths (/work-time-maths) Work problems with solutions (/work-problems-solutions) Work time problems (/work-time-problems)

Men and work problems (/men-and-work-problems) Mandays work problems (/mandays-work-problems) Math work and time (/math-work-and-time)

Work problem solving (/work-problem-solving) Quantitative aptitude (/quantitative-aptitude) Bank clerk (/bank-clerk)

9 Comments SureSolv 🔒 Disqus' Privacy Policy 

1 Login

 Recommend t Tweet f Share Sort by Best

Join the discussion…

LOG IN WITH
OR SIGN UP WITH DISQUS ?

Name

Tolu • a year ago

Hi, you did a great job explaining. Regarding the example you used, can you explain how long it will take 10men and 4 women working together. I
would like to know the concept to work out question of working together assuming not all of them (I.e 12 men and 12 women) are working together.
Thank you
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Atanu Chaudhuri Admin > Tolu • a year ago

4 women working is equivalent to 8 men working. So if 10 men and 4 women work together it is equivalent to 10+8=18 men working. 12 men
finish the job in 24 days, so 18 men will finish the job in 2/3rd of 24, that is (12x24)/18=16 days (18 is 3/2 times of 12, and number of workers
is inversely proportional to time taken to complete-more workers, less days).
Here we have used the worker equivalence concept. How did we arrive at the worker equivalence? By equating the amount of work in terms
of 288 mandays with 144 womandays.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

anisha • 2 years ago

A and B working separately complete a work in 8days and 12 days respectively. They work alternatively days starting with A in the first day.In how
many days work will the work be completed?
△ ▽ • Reply • Share › 
Atanu Chaudhuri Admin > anisha • 2 years ago
These we call boundary condition problems in which for
solution you need to consider carefully what happens near the end.

As A finished the work in 8 days and B in 12 days, working

independently, if they work in alternate days, in two days they will finish,
1/8th plus 1/12th, that is, 5 portions out of a 24
portion whole work.

Now we need to see how near we reach 24 portions of the whole

by adding every two day’s work (or dividing 24 by 5 and dropping decimal part).
By 4 numbers of two day’s work, that is in 8 days, 20 portions of work get
completed.

On 9th day, A again completes 3 out of 4

remaining parts leaving only 1 out of 24 parts.

On the 10th day then, in half a day, B finishes

the work as, he (or she) does 2 portions out of 24 every day.

The work is finished thus in 9 and half days.

Usually in such problems, answer has a fraction part.

This is the mechanism by which the problem solves itself,

whichever way you go.

Point out any inaccuracies.

△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

anisha > Atanu Chaudhuri • 2 years ago

Thank u
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

anisha > anisha • 2 years ago

I have some questions like this. Shall I send ?
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Atanu Chaudhuri Admin > anisha • 2 years ago • edited

Post here if a problem belongs to this topic. If those are challenging I might create a new post, otherwise also I would try to
help. I have covered good ground on the topic Time and Work I believe.

For any problem under other topics, post each problem as a comment on any post on that topic. That's what I call relevant
comment.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

anisha > Atanu Chaudhuri • 2 years ago

A team of two people A and B who can complete A piece of work together
In 40 days,begins the work.C joins them after 8 days and the work gets completed in 24 days after C joins them.in how many
days can C alone complete the work?
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Atanu Chaudhuri Admin > anisha • 2 years ago

I have solved this type problem with detailed explanation in suresolv.com.

Link: http://suresolv.com/efficie...

Nevertheless I am giving the solution in brief precision.

Problem:

A team of two people A and B, who can complete a piece of

work together in 40 days, begins the work. C joins them
after 8 days and the work gets completed in 24 days
after C joins them. In
how many days can C alone complete the work?

Solution:

40(A+B) = W

Or, 40D=W

Or, D=1/40(W), 
see more
 △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

✉ Subscribe d Add Disqus to your siteAdd DisqusAdd ⚠ Do Not Sell My Data

Enter search terms... 

topics of...

SSC CGL & OTHER EXAMS PROBLEM SOLVING INNOVATION BRAIN GAMES AND TEASERS

Arithmetic Algebra Trigonometry Geometry Number system Mensuration Fractions Surds Simpli cation Ratio and Proportion
Percentage Average Compound interest Pro t and loss Time and work problems Pipes and cisterns problems Work and wages problems
Speed time distance problems Trains running problems Boats in rivers problems Age problems Discount Mixture or Alligation
Permutation and combination Reasoning puzzles School maths

latest

EXAMS TUTORIALS VIDEOS PROBLEM SOLVING & INNOVATION BRAIN GAMES & TEASERS

SSC CHSL Solved question Set 11, Algebra 1

SSC CHSL Solved question Set 10, Mixture and alligation 2

SSC CHSL Solved question Set 9, Mixture and alligation 1

interesting

How to Use a Brain Dump Technique to Gain Clarity and Solve Any Problem

Paradigm Shattering Discoveries Are About To Change Out Lives | Gregg Braden

Taking INDIA TO MARS! The story behind India's space program | Ritu Karidhal | TEDxGateway

Which country does the most good for the world? | Simon Anholt

Math and logic puzzles - Math is fun