Question

Rita is planting saplings along her garden fence. When she started, she had x packages of saplings with 5 saplings per package. She planted 15 saplings and has at most 20 left. How many packages of saplings did she start with? What would the solution look like on a number line graph?

When Rita started, she had
packages of saplings. The solution can be represented as
with an arrow to the
.

Answer 1

Let's break down the information given:

• Rita had x packages of saplings.
• Each package had 5 saplings.
• She planted 15 saplings.
• She has at most 20 saplings left.

First, let's determine how many saplings Rita had initially:

Rita initially had x packages of saplings, with each package containing 5 saplings. So, the total number of saplings she had initially is 5x.

She planted 15 saplings, which means the number of saplings remaining is 5x - 15.

According to the information, she has at most 20 saplings left. This means:

5x - 15 ≤ 20

Now, we can solve this inequality for x:

5x - 15 + 15 ≤ 20 + 15

5x ≤ 35

Now, divide both sides by 5 to isolate x:

5x/5 ≤ 35/5

x ≤ 7

So, Rita initially had at most 7 packages of saplings.

Now, let's represent this solution on a number line graph:

0 7 20

|----------|---------------------|--->

| | |

Initial Rita's Planting At most

Packages 15 Saplings 20 Saplings

On the number line, we have a range from 0 to 7 for the initial number of packages of saplings Rita had. The arrow points to the right, indicating that the value of x (the initial number of packages) is less than or equal to 7.