Final answer:
The expression 'x <= y' indicates that x is less than or equal to y. This includes x being exactly equal to y or any smaller value. In the case of 1.5 ≤ x ≤ 4.5, x ranges between these two numbers inclusively, with 4.5 being the highest possible value for x.
Step-by-step explanation:
The expression 'x <= y' means that x is less than or equal to y. This implies two possible situations: either x is strictly less than y, or x is exactly equal to y. For example, if we consider the inequality 1.5 ≤ x ≤ 4.5, x can take any value between 1.5 and 4.5 inclusive. The number 1.5 represents the lowest value x can be, while 4.5 represents the highest value of x.
In this context, it's important to understand what the symbols mean. The '<=' symbol is a combined version of '<' (less than) and '=' (equal to), which creates a threshold that x cannot go beyond. However, x could be equal to that threshold, which is y in this case. If we say that x equals a number like zero, then x must be exactly 0. On the other hand, when x is greater than 0, it is often represented by a '<' symbol.