Question

Ling must spend no more than $40.00 on decorations for a party. She has spent $10.00 on streamers and wants to buy bags of balloons as well. Each bag of balloons costs $2.50. The inequality below represents x, the number of bags she can buy given the spending limit and how much she has already spent on streamers.

Which best describes the number of bags of balloons she can buy?
She can buy from 0 to 12 bags, but no more.
She can buy from 0 to 20 bags, but no more.
She must buy 12 or more bags.
She must buy 20 or more bags.

Answer 1

she can buy 0 to 12 bags but no more

Answer 2

The statement which best describes the number of bags of balloons she can buy is:

She can buy from 0 to 12 bags, but no more.

Explanation:

It is given that:

• Ling must spend no more than $40.00 on decorations for a party.

This means that the total cost she spends on all the items must be less than or equal to $ 40.

• Now, it is given that:

She has spent $10.00 on streamers and wants to buy bags of balloons as well.

Each bag of balloons costs $2.50.

Let x be the number of bags of balloons she could buy.

i.e.

`10+2.50x\leq 40`

On subtracting 10 from both the sides of the inequality we get:

`2.50x\leq 30`

Now, on dividing both side of the equation by 12 we get:

`x\leq 12`

This means she could not buy more than 12 bags of balloons.