Question

Last year, Gina planted 9 tomato plants in her garden and made pasta sauce with the tomatoes she grew. Gina wants to do it again this year, so she plans to plant at least as many tomato plants as she did last year. Let t represent the number of tomato plants Gina might plant this year. Write an inequality to model the story.

Answer 1

Gina wants to plant at least as many tomato plants as she did last year, where she planted 9. The inequality to represent this situation using variable t for the number of plants this year is t ≥ 9.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is asking to model a mathematical inequality based on a story about planting tomato plants. Gina planted 9 tomato plants last year and wants to plant at least as many this year. Using algebraic notation, we can represent the number of tomato plants Gina might plant this year as t. The inequality that represents this scenario is t ≥ 9. This indicates that Gina will plant 9 or more tomato plants. It’s important to understand that inequalities are used to show that one value is larger, smaller, or equal to another value, and in this case, we're demonstrating that t (the number of plants) should be greater than or equal to the number she planted last year.

Step-by-Step Explanation

1. Identify the variable: t represents number of tomato plants planted this year.
2. Understand the condition: Gina wants to plant at least as many as last year.
3. Translate the condition to an inequality: t must be equal to or greater than 9 (≥).