Question

Tomorrow, Mrs. Wendel's class will be using toothpicks for a science project. Each student must use at least 9 toothpicks for the project.  Mrs. Wendel knows that there is already a bag of 50 toothpicks in the class storage room. She plans to buy x additional toothpicks this afternoon to make sure her class will have enough. If her class has 30 students, which number sentence represents this situation?

Answer 1

`50+x\geq 270`

Explanation:

We have been given that Each student must use at least 9 toothpicks for the project. Her class has 30 students.

First of all, we will find the total number of toothpicks needed for 30 students by multiplying 30 by 9 that is
`30* 9=270`.

Mrs. Wendel knows that there is already a bag of 50 toothpicks in the class storage room. She plans to buy x additional toothpicks this afternoon to make sure her class will have enough.

So the total number of toothpicks that Mrs. Wendel has would be
`50+x`.

The number of total amount of sticks Mrs. Wendel has, should be greater than or equal to 270.

`50+x\geq 270`

Therefore, our required inequality would be
`50+x\geq 270`.

Answer 2

Number of toothpicks required per student = At least 9

Total number of students = 30

Number of toothpicks required for the entire class = At least 9 × 30 = At least 270

Number of toothpicks in the bag in the class storage room = 50

Additional number of toothpicks required to be bought to make sure there are enough toothpicks = 270 - 50 = 220

Hence, she needs to buy 220 toothpicks.