A student 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. The student only has $37 to spend.

Let n represent the number of notebooks that he buys.
Which inequality describes this scenario?
A. 37 >_ 2n + 24
B. 24n + 2 >_ 37
C. 37 > 2n + 24
D. 37 < 2n + 24

1 answer

To formulate the inequality based on the given scenario, we need to account for the total amount spent by the student on the calculator and the notebooks:

  1. The student spends $24 on the calculator.
  2. Each notebook costs $2, so if the student buys \( n \) notebooks, the cost for the notebooks will be \( 2n \).
  3. The total amount the student spends is the sum of the cost of the calculator and the cost of the notebooks, which is \( 24 + 2n \).
  4. The student has a total of $37 to spend, so we want the total cost (calculator + notebooks) to be less than or equal to $37.

Putting this together, we have: \[ 24 + 2n \leq 37 \]

This can be rearranged to: \[ 37 \geq 2n + 24 \]

Thus, the correct option that describes this situation is: A. \( 37 \geq 2n + 24 \)

(Note: In some contexts, this can be written as \( 37 \geq 2n + 24 \) or \( 2n + 24 \leq 37 \), but in terms of notation, option A presents it correctly.)