A new crew of painters takes two times as long to paint a small apartment as an experienced crew. Together, both crews can paint the apartment in 6 hours. How many hours does it take the experienced crew to paint the apartment? It takes hours for the experienced crew to paint the apartment. The solution is

Step 1 ：Let's denote the time it takes for the experienced crew to paint the apartment as \(x\). Therefore, the time it takes for the new crew to paint the apartment is \(2x\).

Step 2 ：We know that when both crews work together, they can paint the apartment in 6 hours. This means that the sum of their rates (rate = 1/time) equals \(1/6\).

Step 3 ：So, we have the equation \(1/x + 1/(2x) = 1/6\).

Step 4 ：We can solve this equation to find the value of \(x\).

Step 5 ：By solving the equation, we find that \(x = 9\).

Step 6 ：Final Answer: It takes the experienced crew \(\boxed{9}\) hours to paint the apartment.