2008 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 18

Problem

Bricklayer Brenda would take nine hours to build a chimney alone, and bricklayer Brandon would take $10$ hours to build it alone. When they work together, they talk a lot, and their combined output decreases by $10$ bricks per hour. Working together, they build the chimney in $5$ hours. How many bricks are in the chimney?

$\mathrm{(A)}\ 500\qquad\mathrm{(B)}\ 900\qquad\mathrm{(C)}\ 950\qquad\mathrm{(D)}\ 1000\qquad\mathrm{(E)}\ 1900$

Solution

Let $x$ be the number of bricks in the chimney. Using $distance = rate \cdot time$ , we get $x = (x/9 + x/10 - 10)\cdot(5)$ . Solving for $x$ , we get $\boxed{900}$ .

2008 AMC 10B (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 17	Followed by Problem 19
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2008 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 18

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