Question

You and a friend sell hats at a fair booth. You sell 16 hats on the first shift and 21 hats on the third shift. Your friend sells x hats on the second shift. You earned more money than your friend. What can you say about the value of x?

a. x is less than or equal to 16.
b. x is greater than 16.
c. x is equal to 16.

Answer 1

The value of x, representing the number of hats sold by the friend, must be less than or equal to 16, since the total number of hats you sold was 37 and you earned more money.

Step-by-step explanation:

If you sold 16 hats on the first shift and 21 hats on the third shift, and earned more money than your friend who sold x hats on the second shift, we can determine something about the value of x. Since you sold a total of 16 + 21 = 37 hats and made more money than your friend, we can infer that your friend must have sold fewer than 37 hats.

Now, we need to compare the number of hats you sold on your least productive shift with the number your friend sold. You sold 16 hats on your least productive shift, so for you to have earned more money, your friend must have sold fewer than 16 hats. Therefore, we can indicate that x is less than or equal to 16.