The local hospital currently has 25 nurses. The hospital administrator sees that they are adding 4 nurses each year to their staff (which included the loss from nurses leaving the hospital). The administrator knows that they need to have at least 41 nurses on staff to meet a particular goal. If

Question

t
t represents the number of years, for what values of
t
t will the hospital meet its goal?

t is greater than or less than ___?

Answer 1

This is my best guess, but:

We know that every year, 4 nurses are added to staff, "including loss of nurses". However, it doesn't specify how many nurses are 'lost', just that their number keeps going up 4 annually.

Therefore, if they are guaranteed to always GAIN 4 nurses, then in 4 years, they will have 41 nurses. The reason is because 4x4=16, and 25+16=41.

t is less than or equal to 4. Why? Because again, the amount of nurses they lost isn't certain every year, and you don't know how many will quit this year, or the next, etc.

But the question asks "greater than or less than __"?
So, t <=4, but without the equality sign it would be t<5.

-Hope this helps.

Answer 2

41 = 25 + 4 t
16 = 4 t
t = 4
so
t>/= 4