work problem: house painter took 6 hrs longer than expected

[idalia17]

a man was paid $ 540 to paint a room. it took him 6 hours longer than he expected and therefore, he earned $3.00 per hour less than he anticipated. define the variables and set up the equation to find how long it took him to paint the room.

please help i'm absolutely stuck!!!

 

[Loren]

Re: work problems

Let h represent the actual number of hours it took him to paint the room.
Let p represent the actual hourly pay he received.

As a basis to build your equations use...

hourly pay X hours worked = total pay

(1) hours he actually worked times actual hourly pay = actual amount received.
(2) hours he had planned on times hourly pay he planned on = planned amount received.

Build your two equations and solve simultaneously.

I got that it took him 36 hours to paint the room. Nuff said.