Question

Mary makes trail mix with almonds and dried fruit. She spends $5 on the dried fruit. The almonds cost $2.50 per pound. She can spend at most $12.

Answer 1

x represents the number of pounds of almonds, Mary can buy at most 2.8 pounds of almonds.

Explanation:

We can set up an inequality to represent this situation. Let x be the number of pounds of almonds that Mary buys. Then the total cost C of the almonds and dried fruit must be less than or equal to $12:

2.5x + 5 ≤ 12

Simplifying this inequality:

2.5x ≤ 7

x ≤ 2.8

Since x represents the number of pounds of almonds, Mary can buy at most 2.8 pounds of almonds.