Jose’s school has 426 students. His principal has promised the Student Council that their idea will be carried out if they can g
et at least 25% of the student population to sign a petition. So far, 82 students have signed the petition. Jose used the following steps to write an inequality that can be used to determine the number of student signatures still needed: Step 1. Declare the variable: Let x = the number of student signatures still needed. Step 2. Create a ratio equivalent to StartFraction total number of signatures needed over total number of students in the school EndFraction : StartFraction x + 82 over 426 EndFraction. Step 3. Convert 25% to a decimal: 25% = 0.25. Step 4. Write the inequality: StartFraction x + 82 over 426 EndFraction less-than-or-equal-to 0.25. What is Jose’s error? In Step 1, x should be equal to the total number of students in the school. In Step 2, the ratio should be StartFraction x over 426 EndFraction. In Step 3, the decimal should be 0.025. In Step 4, the inequality should be StartFraction x + 82 over 426 EndFraction greater-than-or-equal-to 0.25.
