Eli wants to purchase some new school supplies. He wants to buy a calculator that costs $24 and some notebooks for school. Each notebook costs $2. Eli only has $37 to spend.

Question

Let n represent the number of notebooks that Eli buys.

Which inequality describes this scenario?

37<2n+24 , 37<2n+24

37≤2n+24 , 37 is less than or equal to 2 n plus 24

37>2n+24 37 is greater than 2 n plus 24

37≥2n+24

Answer 1

To determine the correct inequality, we need to think about Eli's total spending.

Eli plans to spend $24 on the calculator and $2 for each notebook he buys. If he buys \( n \) notebooks, the total cost for the notebooks would be \( 2n \). Thus, the total cost for both the calculator and the notebooks would be \( 24 + 2n \).

Eli has a budget of $37, meaning he can't spend more than this amount. Therefore, we set up the following inequality:

\[ 24 + 2n \leq 37 \]

This translates to:

• \( 24 + 2n \) is the total amount he will spend,
• \( \leq 37 \) indicates he must spend less than or equal to the amount he has.

To express it in the standard format, we rearrange this inequality:

\[ 2n \leq 37 - 24 \] \[ 2n \leq 13 \]

Therefore, the scenario is represented by the inequality:

37 ≥ 2n + 24 (which means he can spend at most $37).

Thus, the correct option is:

37 ≥ 2n + 24.