Question

NO LINKS OR ANSWERING QUESTIONS YOU DON'T KNOW!!! NOT A MULTIPLE CHOICE!!!

In a hotel building, the lobby is located at sea-level. The first floor is located 18 feet above the lobby, and the basement is located 22 feet below the lobby.

a. Write an inequality to compare the elevations of the first floor and the basement.

b. What is the distance from the lobby to the basement? Write your answer as an absolute value statement.

c. Which is a greater distance from the lobby: the first or basement? Justify your response.

Answer 1

9514 1404 393

Answer:

• -22 < 0
• |-22-0| = 22
• distance to basement is greater

Explanation:

a) If we let B, L, F represent the elevations of the basement, lobby, and first floor, respectively, then we have ...

B = -22

L = 0

F = 18

Your inequality could be either of ...

B < L

-22 < 0

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b. We're not sure exactly the form you're looking for. Use whichever absolute value statement is appropriate to your needs.

distance = |B -L| = |-22 -0| = |-22| = 22

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c. The distance from the lobby to the first floor is |18 -0| = 18.

The distance from the lobby to the basement is |-22-0| = 22.

The distance 22 is greater than the distance 18, so the distance to the basement is greater.

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Additional comment

The difficulty with this question is not figuring out whether -22 is farther from 0 than is +18. The difficulty is in figuring out the form of the answer that is expected. Without looking at your curriculum materials, we cannot even make an appropriate guess.