Question

a cell phone company charges a flat rate of $5 plus $0.25 per text message you send. if you only have $30 to spend on a phone bill, write the inequality that you could use to see how many text messages you can send

Explanation:

Step1: Define variables

Let $x$ be the number of text - messages.

Step2: Set up cost expression

The cost of the phone bill is the flat rate plus the cost per text - message. The flat rate is $5$ and the cost per text - message is $0.25x$. So the total cost $C = 5+0.25x$.

Step3: Write the inequality

Since you have only $30$ to spend, the total cost $C$ must be less than or equal to $30$. So the inequality is $5 + 0.25x\leq30$.

Answer:

$5 + 0.25x\leq30$