Comments on: Al and Fred’s Car Wash

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 16:38:56 +0000

When Mr. Feeny proposed this problem, it was, like a lot of his teachings throughout the series, not intended as a question of math, but a question of life. There is a correct algebraic answer, as Minkus proved here, and his son Farkle proved in the spinoff Girl Meets World. But this was never a math problem. This was a life problem, involving an ever-changing and nearly incalculable variable; human compatibility. Mr. Feeny taught this lesson likely as a reminder to his students (and the audience) how we can never truly know the effects we’ll have on the people around us, or how people will be able to work together at any given time, no matter how well they’ve worked together before. People change. That’s the answer.

By: Ross

Ross — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 19:01:59 +0000

Mr. Feeny is right: There is no correct answer because those rates are no longer constant when working together. This is because Fred and Al hate each other’s guts.

By: Neo

Neo — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 23:42:40 +0000

There is no car.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 18:58:04 +0000

The answer is 6 mins.. Al won’t be any slower than Fred. But with Als help Fred could be fast..

By: Manny

Manny — Sun, 16 Aug 2020 20:27:02 +0000

No time because the car is already washed.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 14:32:29 +0000

There are too many variables and unknowns. Perhaps the guys didn’t wash all parts of the car at exactly the same rate. Perhaps one of them is faster at washing one particular part of the car. Maybe one guy is really tall and one is really short…one can reach the roof while the other can’t as easily.

Has nobody seen this episode of Boy Meets World? According to Mr. Feeney, there is no right answer. Sometimes there are questions that don’t have a clear answer.

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 07 Jun 2019 00:42:00 +0000

As has been mentioned above the correct answer is about 3.429 minutes.
I would just like to add that one could treat this problem as the equivalent resistance of two parallel resistors in an electric circuit.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Sun, 14 Apr 2019 05:32:30 +0000

Yeah this is a combined rate/work algebra problem and definitely does have a correct mathematical answer.

By: Rose

Rose — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 16:42:47 +0000

Al washes 1/6 of the car in a minute. Fred washes 1/8 in a minute. Together, they would wash 1/6 + 1/8 = 7/24 of the car in a minute. 24/7 = 3.428 minutes, which is equivalent to 3 minutes and 26 seconds, rounding up to the nearest second.

By: Ramon

Ramon — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 05:30:23 +0000

Why’s it so complicated? Person A washes 1/x of the car in one minute. Person B washes 1/y of the car in one minute. Together, in one minute, they wash (1/x + 1/y) of the car. Invert to find how long they take.