Ernesto is baking a multi-tiered cake for a friend's wedding. An eight-inch cake tier will feed 17 guests and a twelve-inch tier will feed 30 guests. In total, these tiers must feed at least 139 guests, the number attending the wedding.

Question

Select the inequality in standard form that describes this situation. Use the given numbers and the following variables.
x = the number of eight-inch tiers
y = the number of twelve-inch tiers

Answer 1

To formulate the inequality based on the information provided:

1. The eight-inch cake tier feeds 17 guests, so if \( x \) represents the number of eight-inch tiers, they will collectively feed \( 17x \) guests.
2. The twelve-inch cake tier feeds 30 guests, so if \( y \) represents the number of twelve-inch tiers, they will collectively feed \( 30y \) guests.
3. The total number of guests that need to be fed is at least 139.

Putting this all together, the inequality can be expressed as:

\[ 17x + 30y \geq 139 \]

This is the standard form of the inequality that describes the situation.