How do you solve #5 >= (x+2)/3#?

1 Answer
Jan 31, 2016

The whole goal of problems like this is to isolate the 'x' variable. To do this for this specific problem, we first need to deal with the fact that 'x' is part of a fraction. You can not start by subtracting the 2. Because the two is also part of the fraction and is bound to the 'x' as either + or -, the two can be treated as (x+2) and can not be separated unless both are over 1.

Alright, so you begin by multiplying both sides by 3 to eliminate the fraction. You can either choose to think of (x+2)/3 as so, or as (x+2) multiplied by 1/3.

By multiplying both sides by 3 you now get 15 is greater than or equal to x + 2. From here you just need to subtract the two from both sides resulting in:

#13>=x#