The 48 minutes for all the pipes to work together to fill the tank.
To find the time taken to fill the tank, we can use the concept of work done, which is equal to the product of the rate of work and the time taken. Let us assume that the capacity of the tank is 120 units (LCM of 20, 30, and 40), and we need to fill the tank.
Pipe A can fill 1/20 of the tank in one minute, pipe B can fill 1/30 of the tank in one minute, and pipe C can empty 1/40 of the tank in one minute.
Let us assume that all three pipes work together for 'x' minutes to fill the tank. In 'x' minutes, pipe A can fill x/20 of the tank, pipe B can fill x/30 of the tank, and pipe C can empty x/40 of the tank.
The net amount of work done in 'x' minutes will be the sum of the work done by each pipe, which is:
x/20 + x/30 - x/40
To fill the tank, the net amount of work done should be equal to the capacity of the tank, which is 120 units.
Therefore, we can write the equation as:
x/20 + x/30 - x/40 = 120
Solving this equation, we get:
x = 48 minutes
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