“Work” Inverse Variation Problem Product Rule Method

x1y1z1=x2y2z2(16)(7)(48)=(14)(12)z25376=168z2z2=32
If 16 women working 7 hours day can
paint a mural in 48 days, how many days
Since each woman is working at the same rate, we know that when we multiply
will it take 14 women working 12 hours a
the number of women (x) by the number of the hours a day (y) by
day to paint the same mural?
the number of days they work (z), it should always be the same (a constant).
(Try it yourself with some easy numbers).
(The three different values are inversely
proportional; for example, the more
We can just substitute in all the numbers that we are given and solve for the
women you have, the less days it takes to
number we want (days). So we see that it would take 32 days for 14 women that
paint the mural, and the more hours in a
work 12 hours a day to paint the mural. In this case, our k is 5376, which
day the women paint, the less days they
represents the number of hours it would take one woman alone to paint the
need to complete the mural.)
mural.