what is the answer?

Question

Karen has to buy 15 shirts for sports camp. If the shirts cost the same price and Karen can spend at most $200, write an inequality to find the most amount of money, x, she can spend on a shirt.

 

Answer 1

Hi Emma,

 

To write an inequality, you need to to figure out which symbol you are to use.  In this particular case, we are using the "less than or equal to" inequality (≤).  This is because Karen can spend AT MOST $200, meaning that she cannot exceed this amount.  The inequality would look like this:

 

15x ≤ $200

 

The "15" represents the number of shirts she is buying, and "x" represents the price per shirt.  If we divide both sides of the inequality by 15, we find that x cannot exceed $13.33, meaning that she cannot spend any more than that if she wants to stick to her budget.  Hope this helps!

 

x ≤ $13.33

Answer 2

The maximum amount of money, in $, that can be spent on shirts is:

         (cost of a shirt)*(number of shirts) ≤ $200

         (cost of a shirt) ≤ $200 / (number of shirts)     (note: sense of inequality remains if number is positive

         x ≤ $200/15

         x ≤ $13.33 per shirt