SOLUTION: To whomever this may concern, I am having trouble solving problems involving inequalities. They are word problems such as "After selling a dozen copies of the daily newspaper, a

Algebra ->  Inequalities -> SOLUTION: To whomever this may concern, I am having trouble solving problems involving inequalities. They are word problems such as "After selling a dozen copies of the daily newspaper, a      Log On


   

Question 729599: To whomever this may concern,
I am having trouble solving problems involving inequalities. They are word problems such as "After selling a dozen copies of the daily newspaper, a newsdealer had fewer than 75 copies left. How many copies did the dealer have originally?" If you don't mind could you please take me through a step by step guide on how to do these types of problems?
Thank-you very much,
Patrick
Answer by KMST(5328) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
x= number of daily newspaper copies the newsdealer originally had.
x-12= number of daily newspaper copies the newsdealer had after selling 12 copies.
That number is less than 75, so
x-12%3C75
The inequality is comparing 2 numbers: x-12 and 75.
You know that the number on the left (the still unknown x-12 is less than the other number.
If you added 12 to each side of the inequality, the left side still would be less than the right side so you know that
x-12%2B12%3C75%2B12
That can be simplified to
highlight%28x%3C87%29
So the newsdealer started with less than 87 copies of the daily newspaper.