Solve the inequality -15<y-13

Answer 1

Often times when we start doing algebra, people get confused when the desired variable is on the right righ side of the equation rather than the left side. This is especially confusing when the equation is an inequality. It gets even worse when your variable is negative and you have to flip the inequality.

Therefore, the first step, to make things easier is to swap the "right" side with the "left" side. When you do this you also have to flip the inequality. The result would look like the following:

y-13 > -15

This is the same inequality because the "alligator" inequality is bigger on the side of the variable. (The alligator is facing the y). Also the 13 is still being subtracted from the y.

Now to solve we just add 13 to both sides. By adding 13 to both sides, the 13 will cancel on the left and on the right we have -15 + 13, which is -2

So we have y > -2

Now we can describe this inequality as "y is greater than negative two" because when you have an inequality where the variable is on the left, you can read it straight across the line.