Emma wants to buy some snacks that cost $3 each. She has no more than $18 to spend. Which inequality represents the maximum number of snacks, s, Emma can buy?

1 answer

To represent the maximum number of snacks \( s \) that Emma can buy with her budget, you can set up the following inequality based on the information provided:

  1. Each snack costs $3, so if Emma buys \( s \) snacks, the total cost would be \( 3s \).
  2. Emma has no more than $18 to spend.

Putting these together, the inequality can be formulated as:

\[ 3s \leq 18 \]

To find the maximum number of snacks, we can solve this inequality for \( s \):

  1. Divide both sides by 3:

\[ s \leq \frac{18}{3} \] \[ s \leq 6 \]

So, the inequality \( 3s \leq 18 \) represents the maximum number of snacks \( s \) that Emma can buy, which is at most 6 snacks.