Algebra 1: The Impossible Task

Students are given a manufacturing situation and asked to write an inequality to represent it. Once they have written the inequality, students examine its solution setting by testing values of the variable using lists and viewing its graph.

A second constraint and a second variable are added to the situation. Students graph the second inequality along with the first inequality. They will compare the solution set shown by the graph with the solution found by testing values.

A third constraint is introduced and explored in a similar fashion. First the solution set of the inequality by itself is discussed, and then students are prompted to search for solutions to the system created by all three inequalities taken together.