write the inequality and solve equation

Question

the high school is having a canned food drive. they want to raise at least 3500 cans of food. if the population of the high school is 823 students, how many cans of food will each student have to meet their goal? write an inequality and solve the equation

Answer 1

3500 < 823x where x is the number of students per can.  We choose to use the 'less than' symbol because we want to make sure the number of cans brought is at least 3500.  Dividing 823 from both sides, we get 4.2527339 < x, so each student needs to bring at least 4.25 cans.  Since you cannot bring a quarter of a can (well you could, but they probably wouldn't be happy about it), we can round up to 5, which would be our final answer.  

 

Note: We should actually be using the 'less than or equal to' sign, because if the number had come out evenly, that would have been a valid option, but I do not have access to that symbol.