A shipping container will be used to transport several 120-kilogram crates across the country by rail. The greatest weight that can be loaded into the container is 24500 kilograms. Other shipments weighing 8300 kilograms have already been loaded into the container. Write and solve an inequality which can be used to determine x, the number of 120-kilogram crates that can be loaded into the shipping container.

1 answer

Let's assume that x is the number of 120-kilogram crates that can be loaded into the shipping container.

Each crate weighs 120 kilograms. So the total weight of the crates is 120x kilograms.

The greatest weight that can be loaded into the container is 24500 kilograms.

Other shipments weighing 8300 kilograms have already been loaded into the container.

The total weight that can be loaded into the container is the weight of the crates plus the weight of the other shipments: 24500 = 120x + 8300.

To find the number of crates that can be loaded into the container, we need to solve this inequality.

24500 - 8300 = 120x
16200 = 120x
x = 16200/120
x = 135

Therefore, the number of 120-kilogram crates that can be loaded into the shipping container is 135.