Question

Salma will run less than 35 miles this week. So far, she has run 18 miles. What are the possible numbers of additional miles she will run?

Use t for the number of additional miles she will run.
Write your answer as an inequality solved for t.

Answer 1

We know that Salma will run less than 35 miles in total this week.

So if t represents the number of miles that Salma runs, we have the inequality:

0mi ≤ t < 35 mi

(where the first part comes because she can not run a number of negative miles, but this is trivial.)

We know that she already ran 18 miles, then we have now the inequality:

t + 18mi < 35mi

Now we need to isolate S

t < 35mi - 18mi

t < 17mi

So she can run any number of miles that is smaller than 17 miles.

For example, she could run 10 miles, 14 miles, 4.5 miles, etc.