Question

Two of the volleyball team’s coaches and three of the players’ parents would like to

make speeches during the fundraiser. The principal wants the total time for speeches
to be under 30 minutes. Explain how to write an inequality to find the possible average
length of each speech.

Answer 1

Sample response: Choose a variable to represent the average speech length. If x is the variable, then the inequality would be (2+3)x < 30,="" or="">x < 30. The 2 + 3, or 5, represents the total number of people making speeches. Each one would last an average of x minutes, so we want the product of x and (2+3) to be less than 30, the time limit set by the principal.

For those who wanted the sample response.

Answer 2

5x < 30

Explanation:

coaches = 2x

parents = 3x

total time = under 30 mins

2x + 3x < 30

5x < 30

x < 6