Apu was assigned to do 2 similar tasks. He completes the second task in two-thirds the time it takes him to complete the first task. If it took him an hour to complete both the tasks, in how many minutes did he complete the second task?

Question: Apu was assigned to do 2 similar tasks. He completes the second task in two-thirds the time it takes him to complete the first task. If it took him an hour to complete both the tasks, in how many minutes did he complete the second task?

Solution:
Let the time taken for the first task be t minutes.
Then, time for the second task = 2t/3 minutes.

Total time for both tasks = 1 hour = 60 minutes.

ATQ,
t + (2t/3) = 60
⇒ (3t + 2t)/3 = 60
⇒ 5t = 60 × 3
⇒ t = (60 × 3)/5
∴ t = 36

∴ Second task = 2t/3 = (2 × 36)/3 = 24 minutes

So Apu completed the second task in 24 minutes.