<p>Got this from a kaplan sat practice test I took.</p>
<p>Ambrose, working alone, can paint a certain room in 8 hours. Either one of Benedict or Charles, working alone, can paint the room in 4 hours. If all three people, working at these rates, work together to paint the room, what fraction of the room is painted by Ambrose?</p>
<p>Ive seen a few problems like these but I dont think Ive ever gotten one correct. So how would I approach a question like this? Is there some kind of formula? How do i solve this?!</p>
<p>Btw this was a student produced q, and I dont have the answer. Kaplan suks…, on my answer sheet they only marked if the answer was right or wrong.</p>
<p>Just think about it this way:
Say Ambrose does X work. Each of the other two can do 2X work, and together 4X work. All three of them therefore do 5X work, and Amborse is X worth of this work. So x/5x=1/5</p>