High School

Miguel can use all or part of his [tex]\$25[/tex] gift card to make a music purchase. Each song costs [tex]\$1.50[/tex], and there is a [tex]\$1.00[/tex] per account activation fee.

Which inequalities can represent this situation if [tex]m[/tex] is the number of songs he can buy? Select two options.

A. [tex]1 + 1.5m \leq 25[/tex]
B. [tex]1 + 1.5m \geq 25[/tex]
C. [tex]25 \ \textgreater \ 1 + 1.5m[/tex]
D. [tex]1 + 1.5m \ \textless \ 25[/tex]
E. [tex]25 \geq 1 + 1.5m[/tex]

Answer :

To analyze Miguel’s situation, note that he must pay a \$1 activation fee and \$1.50 for each song he buys. Letting \( m \) represent the number of songs, the total cost \( C \) can be written as

$$
C = 1 + 1.50\,m.
$$

Since Miguel has a \$25 gift card, the cost must not exceed \$25, which gives us the inequality

$$
1 + 1.50\,m \leq 25.
$$

To avoid handling decimals, we can multiply the entire inequality by 10. This yields

$$
10 + 15\,m \leq 250,
$$

which, when divided by 10 again (to revert to the original scale), corresponds to the inequality

$$
1 + 15\,m \leq 25.
$$

This inequality is equivalent to

$$
25 \geq 1 + 15\,m.
$$

Thus, the two correct representations of the situation are:

1. \( 1 + 15\,m \leq 25 \)
2. \( 25 \geq 1 + 15\,m \)

These are the two inequalities that accurately represent the condition that the total cost of the songs, including the activation fee, should not exceed \$25.