Steve is a painter. he can paint a house in 20 hours. it takes his assistant 30 hours to paint a house. how long, in hours, would it take them to paint a house working together?

geometry: triangles

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call the larger triangle abc

then the smaller triangle cde is similar to abc (all angles are equal, aaa).  

ab is the side that is 36, and we wish to find de, the side corresponding to ab

area_cde = area_abc - area_cde --> area_abc / area_cde = 2

let x=length of de

ratio of areas = (ratio of sides)^2

+2+=+%2836%2fx%29%5e2+

+2+=+1296%2fx%5e2+

++x%5e2+=+1296%2f2+=+648+

25.45584

m∠a is 90°

m∠b is 40°

the answer to your question is b.

look at the picture i have filled out a table for it. hope this .