Youssef is taking a trip on an airplane. He knows that to avoid extra fees his suitcase must weigh under 50 pounds. The suitcase with his clothes weighs 35 pounds. He has room, so he decides to pack some books for his trip, too. Each book weighs on average 1.2 pounds. How many books could he bring on the trip? He writes the inequality 1.2b+35<50 , where b equals the number of books, to help figure this out. Solve his inequality. Use the letter b as your variable and write your b term first.

Question

Youssef is taking a trip on an airplane. He knows that to avoid extra fees his suitcase must weigh under 50 pounds. The suitcase with his clothes weighs 35 pounds. He has room, so he decides to pack some books for his trip, too. Each book weighs on average 1.2 pounds. How many books could he bring on the trip? He writes the inequality 1.2b+35<50 , where b equals the number of books, to help figure this out. Solve his inequality. Use the letter b as your variable and write your b term first.

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Answer 1

To solve the inequality 1.2b + 35 < 50, we can isolate the variable b by subtracting 35 from both sides:

1.2b + 35 - 35 < 50 - 35
1.2b < 15

Then, we divide both sides by 1.2 to solve for b:

1.2b / 1.2 < 15 / 1.2
b < 12.5

Since b represents the number of books, the answer must be a whole number. Therefore, Youssef can bring a maximum of 12 books on the trip without exceeding the weight limit.