Question

You need at least $40 to buy some notebooks, but your parents don’t want to give you more than $50. Write an inequality representing the possible amount of money you could get.

Answer 1

m = amount of money you receive

You need at least $40, so that means you need m = 40 or more

So $m \ge 40$ which is the same as saying $40 \le m$. You flip both sides and also flip the inequality sign as well.

At the same time, your parents won't give you more than $50. So the largest m can get is m = 50. This means $m \le 50$

-----------------

Combine $40 \le m$ and $m \le 50$ to get the compound inequality $40 \le m \le 50$

This represents all the possible values of m. We see that m can get as small as m = 40, or as large as m = 50, or anything in between.

------------------

Answer: $40 \le m \le 50$