Question

Sam and joe are painters. Sam makes $2 an hour less than joe. On a job that took them both 40 hours to complete they made $440. How much does Sam make an hour?

Answer 1

let s is the money Sam makes hourly and j is the money Joe makes in an hour.

we have s=j-2  and 40(s+j)=440 --->>>>  plugging the value s=j-2 to the second equation we get

40(j-2+j)=440 --->>>  40(2j-2) =440  --->>>  40*2(j-1)=440   --->>>  80(j-1)=440  deviding by 80 both sides

we get;  j-1=5.5  --->>>  j=6.5  so s=6.5-2=4.5 so Sam makes 4.5 $ an hour