Question

Mrs. Richmond is making her special cantaloupe-and-honeydew salad for a school banquet and doesn't want to spend more than $31 at the supermarket. Currently, cantaloupes cost $4 each and honeydew melons cost $2 each.
Select the inequality in standard form that describes this situation. Use the given numbers and the following variables.
x = the number of cantaloupes she will purchase
y = the number of honeydew melons she will purchase

Answer 1

To describe the situation, we can form an inequality based on the costs of the cantaloupes and honeydew melons.

Let:
- \( x \) be the number of cantaloupes purchased, with each costing $4.
- \( y \) be the number of honeydew melons purchased, with each costing $2.

The total cost of the fruits can be expressed as:
\[ 4x + 2y \]

According to the problem, Mrs. Richmond does not want to spend more than $31 on these fruits, which gives us the inequality:
\[ 4x + 2y \leq 31 \]

To express this in standard form, we want to rearrange it such that the terms involving \( x \) and \( y \) are on the left side:

1. Start with the original inequality:
\[ 4x + 2y \leq 31 \]

2. We can subtract 31 from both sides to express it in standard form:
\[ 4x + 2y - 31 \leq 0 \]

However, a more common form is to write it as:
\[ 4x + 2y - 31 \geq 0 \]

Thus, the inequality in standard form that describes this situation is:
\[ 4x + 2y \leq 31 \]