SOLUTION: I don't understand how to write an inequality from a word problem. If that doesn't make sense, my problem is that I don't know how to take an equation from a word problem. The prob

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Question 235618: I don't understand how to write an inequality from a word problem. If that doesn't make sense, my problem is that I don't know how to take an equation from a word problem. The problem is "In a school zone, cars can go no more than 20 mi/h." I think I'm supposed to put x>=20, x meaning cars. That is suppose to mean cars can go less than or equal to twenty. Also I know the > Should have a line under it to show equal to, but I'm not sure how to show that on a computer.

Answer by Theo(13342) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
In a school zone, cars cannot go more than 20 miles per hour.

If you let x = the speed that the cars are allowed to go, then your equation becomes:

x <= 20

This means that x is smaller than or equal to 20 which means that the speed of the cars cannot exceed 20 miles per hour.

The common conventions are:
le means less than or equal to
ge means greater than or equal to
gt means greater than
lt means less than
eq means equals

In symbols, if you use the following, it should be understood

= implies equals
>= implies greater than or equal to
<= implies less than or equal to
> implies greater
< implies less than

The algebra.com formula generator program will take these symbols and make the following out of them:

x = y becomes x+=+y
x > y becomes x+%3E+y
x < y becomes x+%3C+y
x >= y becomes x+%3E=+y
x <= y becomes x+%3C=+y