Question

A contractor can spend at most $350 a day on operating costs and payroll. It costs $75 each day to operate the forklift and $55 a day for each crew member. Write an inequality to represent the contractor's budget for the day.

75 + 55x ≥ 350
75 + 55x ≤ 350
75x + 55 ≥ 350
75x + 55 ≤ 350

Answer 1

What do you think it is and why?

Answer 2

It is either A or C because when I added 75 and 55, I got 130.

Answer 3

Alright, first let's start by looking at the information given.

The most that the contractor can spend is $350.
To operate the forklift costs $75 a day.
And each worker gets paid $55.


Knowing that the contractor can spend up to $350 and cannot go beyond that, that means the budget has to be `less than or equal to $350` or `≤ 350`

Next, the problem tells us that the forklift costs $75 a day. This is a fixed amount and the variable cannot go here because we are looking for the inequality that represents the contractor's budget for `one` day. (75)

Lastly, we know each worker gets paid $55. The number of workers is not given, therefore, the variable "x" will go here. (55x)

So when we set up our inequality, it should look like this:

`75 + 55x ≤ 350`

Answer 4

Thank you so much!