Question

Tia is working to get enough money to buy a new cell phone. She has already saved $220, but needs to have at least $595 to buy the phone. Each week at her job, she saves $50 for the cost of the phone. Create an inequality to model this scenario.

Answer 1

Let x represent the number of weeks it will take her to get enough money to buy the new cell phone.

We were told that she already saved $220 but needs at least $595 to buy the phone. The statement of at least means greater than or equal to.

Since she saves $50 per week, it means that in x weeks, she would have saved

50 * x = $50x

The total amount that she would have saved is

220 + 50x

Therefore, the inequality representing this scenario is

`220\text{ + 50x }\ge595`