Gary began peeling a pile of 44 potatoes at the rate of 3 per minute.

Four minutes later, Christen joined him, and peeled at the rate of 5 potatoes per minute. When they were finished, how many potatoes had each peeled?

44-4(3)= 32 potatoes remaining

If Christen peeled 5 potatoes in a mintue, and Gary 3, then after 1 minute they would have peeled 8 potatoes. 32/8 = 4 minutes to peel all the potatoes. Of those, Christen would have peeld 4(5), or 20, and Gary would have peeled 4(3), or 12. Add this to his original 12 to get a total of 24. 24 + 20 = 44.

Gary has already peeled for four minutes, so that's 4*3 = 12 potatoes.

At that point christen joins in and they peel at a rate of 5 + 3 = 8 potatoes per minute
The remaining 32 potatoes are peeled in 32 / 8 = 4 minutes.

we know that gary peels 3/8 out of those 32, and christen peels 5/8
3/8 * 32 = 12 for gary giving him a total of 24 potatoes
5/8 * 32 = 20 potatoes for christen.

for 4 min Gary peeled 3 per min, so thats 12. there are now 32 left to peel when Christen comes in. every minute, G peels 3 and C peels 5, totaling 8 per minute. so take 32 and divide it by 8, which is 4. this means that to finish off the potatoes they have to keep peeling for 4 more minutes. Gary started off with 12 potatoes, and during the 4 minutes he peeled 12 more (4 min, 3 per min) totaling 24. which means C peeled 20.

Gary peeled 24 potatoes in a total of 8 minutes

Christen peeled a total of 20 potatoes in 4 minutes

Total potatoes peeled - 44 in 8 minutes

Gary:24
Christen:20