Question

Sara owns an exotic pet store. She wants to make sure she has more than a pound of food for every 15 lizards she has in the store. If she currently has 4.25 pounds of food, how many lizards can she have in the store?

Which inequality can be used to solve the problem?


Solve the inequality. How can you interpret the solution?

Answer 1

Let x = number of lizards. Each lizard needs 1/15 pound, so the inequality is
(1/15)x < 4.25.
Solve: x < 4.25·15 = 63.75.

Since x must be a whole number of lizards, x ≤ 63. Interpretation: she can have at most 63 lizards and still have more than a pound of food for every 15 lizards (64 lizards would require more than 4.25 lb).