Systems of linear inequalities word problems – level 3-4

Level 3

1. Julia mows lawns in the summer for $15 per lawn. It costs Julia between $2 and $4 to mow 1 lawn. If l
represents the number of lawns Julia mows, which graph correctly shades the possible values of Julia's net earnings,
d, in dollars?

A. B.

C. D.

1
2. The florist needs at least gallons of
3

nutrient-rich water for each bushel of flowers he buys.

With $120 to spend this week, the florist purchases f
bushels of flowers at $1.19 per bushel and w gallons
of nutrient-rich water at $0.50 per gallon. The
equations related to these two constraints are graphed
at left. How many bushels of flowers and gallons of
nutrient-rich water could he buy?
A. 120 bushels of flowers and 20 gallons of
nutrient-rich water
B. 100 bushels of flowers and 80 gallons of
nutrient-rich water
C. 60 bushels of flowers and 40 gallons of
nutrient-rich water
D. 80 bushels of flowers and 10 gallons of
nutrient-rich water
3. Cecília has 2 jobs. The first job pays $8.20 per hour and the second job pays $14.60 per hour. Each week, Cecília
can work no more than 40 hours, but she needs to make at least $440. In one week, Cecília works a hours at the
first job and b hours at the second job. Which graph represents the number of hours that Cecília can work at each of
her two jobs to satisfy these conditions?

A. B.

C. D.

4. A landscaping company sells bags that hold up to

2.25 cubic feet ( ft 3 )of mulch. The company

guarantees that there is at least 2 ft 3 of mulch inside

each bag. The graph at left shows two equations

related to this problem, where b is the number of
bags of mulch and v is the cubic feet of mulch.
Which of the following purchases could have come
from this company?

A. 12 bags of mulch containing 45 ft 3 of mulch

B. 14 bags of mulch containing 40 ft 3 of mulch

C. 16 bags of mulch containing 35 ft 3 of mulch

D. 18 bags of mulch containing 30 ft 3 of mulch

5. A barge must carry steel pieces for a construction project such that the total weight of the steel pieces is under
1,500,000 kilograms (kg). Each steel piece is either a beam, which weighs 363kg, or a connector plate, which
weighs 6kg. There must be at least 2 connector plates for each beam. If b is the number of beams and c is the
number of connector plates, which of the following systems of inequalities must be true?

363b  6c  1,500,000
A.
b  2c

363b  6c  1,500,000
B.
2b  c

363b  6c  1,500,000
C.
b  2c

363b  6c  1,500,000
D.
2b  c

6. A car dealership can have up to 90 cars on its lot. According to dealership predictions, when the average number
of cars on the lot is 60, then at most 480 cars are sold per year. Whenever the average number of cars on the lot
increases by 1, the dealership sells up to 2 more cars per year. Which of the following graphs represents the
predicted car sales per year, S, based on the average number of cars on the lot, c?

A. B.

C. D.

7. The owners of an aquarium have recently built a new tank that can hold up to 110 fish. The owners wish to fill it
with orange fish and blue fish. The orange fish are smaller, so they want at least 20 more orange fish than blue fish.
Which of the following graphs represents the possible number of orange fish, k, and blue fish, j, that they can put in
the tank?

A. B.

C. D.

8. In tennis, a player must win 6 games in order to win a set. However, winning 6 games does not guarantee that the
player will win the set. If g is the number of games the player won and s is the number of sets the player won,
which of the following inequalities must be true?

A. s  6 g

B. s  6 g

C. 6 s  g

D. 6 s  g

9. Kaylee and Mariana are runners. In 1 hour, Kaylee can run around the track 48.5 times and Mariana can run
around the park trail 4 times. Let t be the length of the track and p be the length of the park trail, both in meters. If
Kaylee is the faster runner, which of the following inequalities is true?

A. 48.5 p  4t

B. 48.5 p  4t

C. 4 p  48.5t

D. 4 p  48.5t
10. Rodolfo wants to determine how best to benefit from his weekly workouts. His goal is to burn at least 3,300
calories per week from jogging and playing soccer. He can burn 700 calories each hour he spends jogging and 600
calories each hour he spends playing soccer. If Rodolfo's schedule permits him to spend at most 3 hours per week
playing soccer and at most 5 total hours per week exercising, which of the following exercise schedules will allow
him to meet his weekly goal?
A. 4 hours playing soccer and 1 hour jogging
B. 1 hour playing soccer and 5 hours jogging
C. 3 hours playing soccer and 2 hours jogging
D. 2 hours playing soccer and 3 hours jogging

11. Roberto plans to start a new job. In preparation, he decides that he should spend no more than 30 hours per
week on the job and homework combined. If Roberto wants to have at least 2 homework hours for every 1 hour at
his job, what is the maximum number of hours that he should spend at his job each week?
A. 9 hours
B. 10 hours
C. 20 hours
D. 21 hours

12. A rancher wants to build a rectangular pen for her animals. She decides that the length, l, of one side of the pen
should be at most 60 feet, the width, w, of one side of the pen should be at least 30 feet, and the perimeter of the
pen should be at most 200 feet. Which of the following systems of inequalities best models the situation described
above?
l  w  200

A. w  30
l  60

l  w  200

B. w  30
l  60

l  w  100

C. w  30
l  60

2l  2 w  200

D. w  30
l  60


13. A food scientist is designing a prototype for a cylindrical ice cream cone. The radius, r, of the cone must be at
most 1.3 inches, and the height, h, of the cone must be at least 5 inches. Finally, the height can be at most 4.5 times
the radius. Which of the following systems of inequalities best models the relationship between the height and
radius of the cone?
 4.5h  r

A. r  1.3
h  5

h  4.5r

B. r  1.3
h  5


 r
 h  4 .5

C. r  1.3
h  5



 h
 4 .5  r

D. r  1.3
h  5



Level 4
14. A tennis club is organizing group lessons. The club supplies 40 new balls for each player which cost $1 each.
Each player pays $300 for the lessons. The club must pay each instructor $1,000 for conducting the lessons, and
there must be at least 1 instructor for every 6 players. Which amount of players and instructors meets these
requirements and still gives the club a net profit?
A. 6 players and 2 instructors
B. 10 players and 3 instructors
C. 13 players and 2 instructors
D. 16 players and 3 instructors

15. A bottle weighs 50 grams and holds up to 2 liters of liquid. A chemist is filling the bottle with x grams of liquid
ethanol and y grams of liquid water. Ethanol has a density of 789 grams per liter and water has a density of 1,000
grams per liter. The chemist wants the mass of the filled bottle to be less than 1,800 grams. Which of the following
systems of inequalities best models the situation described above?

 x  y  1,750
A. 
789x  1,000 y  2

 x  y  1,750

B.  x y
 789  1,000  2


 x  y  1,850
C. 
789x  1,000 y  2
  x  y  1,850

D.  x y
 789  1,000  2


16. Derin is travelling abroad with a $25 calling card, which was a gift from her grandmother. The rate to call Japan,
where her boyfriend is living, is $0.19 per minute. Her family is in Turkey, where the calling rate is $0.12 per
minute. Derin promised her grandmother she would spend at least 30 of her minutes on keeping in touch with
family. Which of the following systems of inequalities represents the relationship between J, the number of minutes
Derin could call Japan, and T, the number of minutes Derin could call Turkey?

T  208  1.6 J
A.
T  J  30

T  25  0.19J
B.
T  J  30

T  208  1.6 J
C.
T  30

T  25  0.19J
D.
T  30

17. Manoj runs a business at a baseball stadium. This month, with a budget of $17,000, Manoj buys p pounds of
peanuts at $1.10 per pound and pays his salespeople $200 each. There are s salespeople in total, and it is predicted
that each can sell a maximum of 1,875 pounds of peanuts this month. Manoj will not buy more peanuts than what
he predicts his salespeople can sell. Which of the following systems of inequalities represents this situation?
p
A. ＄17,000<＄200s+
﹩1.10
1,875s  p
B. ＄17,000<＄200s+＄1.10p
s  1,875

p
C. ＄17,000  ＄200s+
﹩1.10

s  1,875p
D. ＄17,000  ＄200s+＄1.10p
1,875s  p

18. A used car dealer has 20 vehicles, all cars and trucks. He would like to paint and clear coat as many of them as
possible with the 260 liters of paint and 300 liters of clear coat that he has. It takes 13.2 liters of paint and 9.5 liters
of clear coat for one car. It takes 1.5 times those amounts for one truck. Given the relevant equations graphed below,
which of the following could be the amount of cars and trucks that received paint and clear coat?
 A. 10 cars and 6 trucks
B. 6 cars and 10 trucks
C. 14 cars and 11 trucks
D. 11 cars and 14 trucks

19. Some zoo monkeys are on a diet of fruit and nuts. Fruit has about 13.3 grams (g) of sugar per cup and 1.36g of
protein per cup. Nuts have about 4.04g of sugar per cup and 15.56g of protein per cup. Each monkey must get
between 70g and 90g of sugar per day and at least 85g of protein per day. Which of the following daily diets fits the
monkeys' needs?
A. 0 cups of fruit and 16 cups of nuts
B. 4 cups of fruit and 8 cups of nuts
C. 8 cups of fruit and 4 cups of nuts
D.16 cups of fruit and 0 cups of nuts

20. A memory chip is being designed to hold a number of transistors and heat sinks. The transistors hold memory
while the heat sinks cool the chip. There must be at least one heat sink for every 2,000 transistors to prevent

overheating. Also, each transistor has an area of 2.0 1010 mm 2 (square millimeters), each heat sink has an area of

3.6  106 mm 2 , and the total area of transistors and heat sinks must be at most 2 mm 2 . What is the approximate

maximum number of transistors that the chip can hold according to this design?

A. 2.78  102

B . 5.56 10
5

C. 1.0 10
9

10
D. 1.0  10
21. A business analyst is deciding the amount of time allotted to each employee for meetings and training. He
wants the sum of meeting and training time to be no more than 16 hours per month. Also, there should be at least
one training hour for every two meeting hours. Finally, there should be at least 2 meeting hours per month to
discuss short-term goals. What is the difference between the maximum and minimum number of monthly training
hours that could be allotted to an employee?
A. 10 hours B. 13 hours C. 14 hours D. 16 hours

22. The supply and demand curves for a product are given by functions S and D, respectively. For a given number
of units, Q, S is the minimum price, in dollars, that the supplier should accept. D is the maximum price, in dollars,
where consumers will purchase that number of units.
S(Q) = 45 + 0.04Q
D(Q) = 110 – 0.003Q
For the above equations, which of the following combinations of price and quantity fall between the maximum
consumer price and minimum supplier price?
A. 500 units at $105
B. 1,000 units at $80
C. 1,500 units at $110
D. 2,450 units at $110

23. A bakery needs to make cakes for Mother's

Day, and must prepare by storing ingredients.
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Each cake is made from 4 cups of batter and
2
cups of frosting. The bakery has storage for up
to 150 cups of ingredients. The two equations
related to these constraints are graphed at left. If
the bakery wants no batter leftover, which of the
following could be the volume of batter and
frosting that they store?
A. 80 cups of batter and 60 cups of frosting
B. 90 cups of batter and 70 cups of frosting
C. 80 cups of batter and 80 cups of frosting
D. 70 cups of batter and 70 cups of frosting