Question

Graph the inequality below on the number line.
b<9

The number line starts at -11 and ends at 11

Answer 1

To graph the inequality \( b < 9 \) on a number line, follow these steps:

1. **Draw the Number Line**: Create a horizontal line that spans from -11 to 11.

2. **Mark the Key Point**: Identify the number 9 on the number line and mark it clearly.

3. **Open Circle at 9**: Since the inequality is strict (less than, not less than or equal to), place an open circle at the point 9 to indicate that 9 itself is not included in the solution.

4. **Shade to the Left**: Shade the portion of the number line to the left of the open circle at 9. This indicates all the values of \( b \) that are less than 9.

Here’s how it looks visually:

```
-11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|
o------------------->
```

- The `o` represents the open circle at 9, and the arrow indicates that the shading goes left (toward lower numbers), showing that \( b \) can take any value less than 9.