Days From Work

The questions in this section are very intriguing. Suppose there is some task, some physical work
that a certain number of people are set to do. Suppose three people are digging a well. They
finish this task in four days. If we increase the number of workers, the time taken to complete the
task will decrease. The whole task here is to find the rate at which work is done per day. For
example, let us see the following solved example.

We will have to develop a formula first. First, we have that Work = Number of days (Time
taken) (T or D) × Number of men (M). In other words, W = D × M.

Suppose w1 is the work done in the first case and w2 in the second case. Then the ratio is equal
to w1/w2 = (T1 × N1)/(T2 × N2)

Example

Two people, A and B complete a certain work in six days. Another person C, if working alone
can do the same work in ten days. If both the people work together, then they can do this work in
how many days?

A) 15 days B) 5 days C) 4.55 days D) 3.75 days

Answer: There may be many methods that you will use to solve this. We will discuss the best
and the easiest one here. The first step is to find the rate at which the work is done. If ‘n’ is the
number of days in which some work is done, then work done per day = 1/n. Let us see the given
question now.
As per the first condition, when A and B work together then they complete the work in 6 days.
Therefore, the rate is equal to 1/6. Similarly, when C does the work alone, the same task takes
ten days. So the rate is equal to 1/10 for the case when C is alone.

The rate determines the fraction of work that happens. Therefore when all the people work
together then the total rate is equal to = 1/6 + 1/10. Thus, we can write it as 4/15. You might be
tempted to take the reciprocal and take the answer as 15 but the numerator should be one for that.
Therefore taking the reciprocal and making the denominator equal to 1, we have:

The number of days in which all three complete the task is equal to 15/4 or 3.75 days. Hence the
correct option is D) 3.75 days.

Solved Examples For You

Example

Q. Ten men can cut eight trees in 16 days. If we have to cut ten trees and we have six men, then
how long will it take these men to cut the trees?

A) 23 days B) 29 days C) 17 days D) 33.3 days

Answer: To solve this question, we will have to develop a formula first. First, we have that Work
= Number of days (Time taken) (T or D) × Number of men (M). In other words, W = D × M.

Suppose w1 is the work done in the first case and w2 in the second case. Then the ratio is equal
to w1/w2 = (T1 × N1)/(T2 × N2)

Here we will find the rate at which one man does the work in one day for both the cases.
Substituting the values in the above equation, we have:

8/10 = (16 × 10)/(T2 × 6). Therefore we have T2 = 33.3 days.

Therefore the correct option is D) 33.3 days.

Example

Q. A can do a job in 10 days. B can do a job in 5 days. In how many days they can complete the
job if they work together?
Answer: The rate at which A can do the work is = 1/10. The rate at which B can do the work is
equal to 1/5. This means, in one day A and B together can do 1/10 + 1/5 of work.
Therefore, Number of days A and B together take to do 100% of work =50/15 or 3.33 days.

Practice Problems
Q 1: Khan and Samip can do a certain task in 8 days. Samip and Yawer can do the same job in
12 days. Khan, Samip, and Yawer if working together can do the job in 6 days. In how many
days can Khan and Yawer complete the job?

A) 8 days B) 16 days C) 32 days D) 6 days

Ans: A) 8 days

Q 2: Two persons A and B together can do a piece of work in 8 days. A alone does the same
work in 12 days. Then if B alone works, he can do the same work in?
A) 100 days B) 33.33 days C) 24 days D) 80 days

Ans: C) 24 days.

Q 3: Three people A, B, and C can do a piece of work in 20, 30 and 60 days respectively. In how
many days can A do the work if he is assisted by B and C on every third day?

A) 10 days B) 15 days C) 20 days D) 25 days

Ans: B) 15 days

Work from Days

Let us start by developing the formula for this section.

First, we have the formula of the work. Where work is the numerical value of the task. Work =
Number of days (Time) (T or D) × Number of men (M). In other words, W = D × M.

Suppose w1 is the work done in the first case and w2 in the second case. Also, let us suppose that
T1 is the number of days that the first person takes and T2 is the number of days that the second
term takes. Also, let N1 and N2 represent the number of people that undertake each task
respectively. Then the ratio of the work done in the first task to the work done in the second task
is equal to w1/w2 = (T1 × N1)/(T2 × N2). Let us see some examples of getting work from days.

Solved Example

Example 1: Ten people can cut 20 trees in 2 days. If twenty people work for two months, then
how many trees will be cut during this time?

A) 1330 trees B) 1223 trees C) 1220 trees D) 1222 trees

Answer: We will use the formula w1/w2 = (T1 × N1)/(T2 × N2) that we have developed just above.
Here w1 = 20, T1 = 2 and N1 = 10.
Similarly, we have w2 = ? , T2 = 61 days, and N2 = 20. Substituting these values in the equation
above, we have:

w1/w2 = (T1 × N1)/(T2 × N2). In other words we can say: 20/w2 = (2×10)/(61×20).

Solving this we can say that w2 = 1220 trees.

We can use the same formula to solve similar questions. Let us now see an important concept
that will simplify a lot of our problems. The concept of efficiency in work. Hence the correct
option is C) 1220 trees.

Efficiency Of Work

The efficiency is the amount of work that a person can do in some certain time. For example,
consider the following example:

Example 2: What is the efficiency of a person who finishes his job in 5 days?

Answer: As per the question, the number of days this person takes to complete the work = 5
Therefore we can say that he does 1/5th of the work per day. This when we convert it into
percentage = 100/5 = 20%. Therefore, his efficiency is 20%.

We can use the efficiency to solve many problems in a very short time. Let us see how.

Example 3: A person ‘A’ can do a job in 10 days. Another person ‘B’ can do the same job in 5
days. In how many days will they complete this job if they work together?

Answer: As per the question, we have A’s efficiency = 10% and B’s efficiency = 20%.
Therefore when they work together, their efficiency is = A+ B = 10 + 20 = 30%
This means, in one day A and B together can do 30% of work. Therefore, the number of days it
will take A and B together to do 100% of the work = 100/30 = 3.33 days.
Some Solved Examples
Example 4: A and B can do a job in 8 days. B and C can do the same job in 12 days. When A, B,
and C work together, they can do the same job in 6 days. In how many days can A and C
complete this job?

Answer: As per the question we have:

The combined efficiency of A and B is = (A+B’s) efficiency = 12.5%
Also, we have: B+C’s efficiency = 8.33%
And A+B+C’s efficiency = 16.66%
Now we need to find A + C. Let us see how to solve this:

Consider, the expression 2(A+B+C), we can write it as = (A+B) + (B+C) + (C+A)

Therefore we have 2(16.66) = 12.5+ 8.33 + (C+A)
And hence we have: C+A = 12.49 = 12.5%
Therefore, the time that A and C take = 100/12.5 = 8 days.

Example 5: A person A is twice as efficient as another person B. The person A can complete a
job 30 days before B. If they work together, how long will it take them to finish the job?

Answer: Let the efficiency of B = x and thus the efficiency of A = 2x.

Since the person A takes 30 days to complete a job, the person B will take 60 days to complete
the same job.

A’s efficiency = 1/30 = 3.33%

B’s efficiency = 1/60 = 1.66%
Therefore there combined efficiency for this job = 3.33% + 1.66% = 5% of the job in 1 day.
So they can complete the whole job in 20 days (= 100/5 days).

Practice Questions
Q 1: A and B together can complete a task in 20 days. B and C together can complete the same
task in 30 days. A and C together can complete the same task in 30 days. What is the respective
ratio of the number of days taken by A when completing the same task alone to the number of
days taken by C when completing the same task alone?

A) 3:1 B) 3:2 C) 1:3 D) 2:3

Ans: C) 1:3

Q 2: A does 80% of a work in 20 days. He then calls in B and they together finish the remaining
work in 3 days. How long B alone would take to do the whole work?

A) 37 (1/2) B) 36 C) 39 (1/2) D) 40
Ans: 37 (1/2)

Efficiency Ratio – Work and Time

Ratio

If A is thrice as good a workman as B, then:

The ratio of work done by A and B = 3: 1.

The ratio of times taken by A and B to finish a work = 1 : 3. This means that if someone says A
is ‘x’ times as good a workman as B, then he will take the time to B to do the same work.

Efficiency

The efficiency of work means, “How much work one person can do in one day (expressed in
percentage)”. For example, a person can do a job in 2 days. In other words, we can say that he
can do 50% of the work in one day. Therefore, his efficiency will be 50%.

The following two steps can be followed to better utilise the concept of efficiency. This concept
involves two steps to calculate efficiency:

Step 1: Convert the work into fraction i.e. per day work.

Step 2: Express the fraction in the form of percentage by multiplying with 100. Let us see this
with the help of an example.

Example 1: If a person can complete his work in 5 days. What will be his efficiency?

Answer: Number of days a person takes to complete his work = 5 days.

This means that he is doing 1/5 th of the work per day (Step one – convert into fraction).

Now let us do the second step and convert it into a percentage:

We have: 100/5 = 20%. Therefore, the person’s efficiency is 20%. Summarizing this, we can say
that if a person can do his job in n days, his efficiency will be given as below:

Efficiency =(100/n) %.

Let us understand more about Work from Days here in detail

Negative And Positive Efficiency

Now the efficiency can be negative as well as positive. For example, if we have a man who
builds a wall in 10 days, his efficiency will be equal to (100/10)% = 10%. Suppose we also have
another man who is demolishing the same wall. he can demolish the entire wall in two days.
Therefore his efficiency will be – (100/2)% = – 50%.

Negative efficiency cancels the positive efficiency.

Another Example: Positive efficiency = 5%, Negative efficiency = 1.5%. Therefore the Net
efficiency = (5 – 1.5)% = 3.5%.

The efficiency cancels out only when the work is of the same nature.

Solved Examples For You

Example 2: A can do a job in 10 days. B can do a job in 5 days. In how many days they can
complete the job if they work together?

Answer: Since A can do the job in 10 days, we can write the efficiency of A is equal to
(100/10)% = 10%. Thus, A’s efficiency = 10%. Similarly, we can say that B’s efficiency is equal
to 20%. Now we nee to find their combined efficiency as follows:

(A+ B) efficiency = (10 + 20)% = 30%. This means in one day A and B together can do 30% of
the work. Therefore, Number of days A and B together take to do 100% of work = (100/3) days
= 3.33 days.

Example 3: A can do a certain work in 12 days. B is 60% more efficient than A. How many days
does B alone take to do the same job?

Answer: Ratio of time taken by A & B = 160:100 = 8:5. Suppose B alone takes x days to do the
job. Then, 8:5::12:x. In other words, we may write: 8x = 5×12 and thus we have x = 15/2 days.

Example 4: If eight men and 12 boys can complete a piece of work in twelve days, in what time
will 40 men and 45 boys complete another piece of work three times as great, supposing sixteen
men can do as much work in 8 hours as 12 boys can do in 24 hours? [SSC Mains, 2003]

A) 4 days B) 16 days C) 8 days D) 32 days

Answer: We are given that sixteen men can do a certain work in 8 hours. The same amount of
work can be done by 12 boys in 24 hours.

We can write 16 = 1/8 and 12 = 1/24.

Therefore we can write the two equations as (16 men)×(8 hours) = 1 [ 1 means the complete
100% of work].

Similarly, we can say that (12 boys)×(24 hours) = 1. Comparing the two equations, we can
write (16 men)×(8 hours) = (12 boys)×(24 hours).

On the left-hand side, we have the men and on the right-hand side, we have the boys. So we can
write (16 × 8 hours) men = (12 × 24) boys. In other words, we may write, 4 men = 9 boys which
means that the amount of work that 4 men can do could be done by 9 boys.

Therefore, moving on to the question, we have: 8 men + 12 boys can do some work in 12 days.
Converting the equation to boys only, we have:

8 men + 12 boys = 9 × 2 boys + 12 boys = 30 boys.

Similalry, from the second condition in the question, we have: 40 men + 45 boys = 10 × 9 boys +
45 boys = 135 boys.

Now, 30 boys can complete the work in 12 days. This means that one boy can complete the work
in 30×12 days. Therefore, 135 boys will complete the work in (30×12)/135 days.

Also, the number of boys that will complete the work three times bigger = (30×12×3)/135 = 8
days. Therefore the answer is C) 8 days.

Practice Work and Time Questions here

Practice Questions:
Q 1: A and B together can do a job in 4 days. If A can do a job in 12 days if he works alone, then
how many days B alone take to complete the job?

A) 6 days B) 8 days C) 10 days D) 10 days

Ans: 6 days.

Q 2: Twenty women can do a work in sixteen days. Sixteen men can complete the same work in
fifteen days. What is the ratio between the capacity of a man and a woman?

A) 4: 7 B) 7: 3 C) 4: 3 D) 3: 7

Ans: C) 4: 3
This concludes our discussion on the topic efficiency ratio.