Question

Jim is two years older than his sister Mary. The sum of their ages is greater than 32. Describe Mary's age.

Create an inequality for this situation, show all of your work and simplify the inequality.

Answer 1

Hi Hamilton1757,

To have the answer, Jim has to be 2 years older than Mary. It says in the question that the sum of the ages is either 32 or greater. If it was 32 Jim would be 17 and Mary 15.

Answer:

Inequality - x > or equal to 32

Hope This Helps

Answer 2

I would assume then that Jim is 17 years old and Mary is 15 years old however the problem says that their ages sum up to be greater than 32 - in essence Jim is any age above 17 and Mary can be any age above 15 so long as it is correspondent with Jim's 2 year lead.

I will use X as a variable to represent Jim's and Mary's age.

(X+2) + X > 32