Making the Most, or the Least, of Linear Inequalities

Have you ever gone shopping at a grocery store? At a mall? On your computer? Or even with a cell phone retailer? How do store owners and online retailers decide the optimal price at which to sell their products? They use algebra! Business owners write and graph linear inequalities to determine the best price for selling each of their products, and to decide which products will provide the greatest profit. The ability to write and graph linear inequalities as models of authentic business situations is important for finding a product’s best value under specified conditions.

In this module, you will learn how to write and graph linear inequalities, and you will study how business owners, online retailers and other entrepreneurs can use this process to maximize their profits.

Module Objectives

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Graph the solution set to a system of linear inequalities in two variables.
• Interpret solutions as viable or nonviable options in a modeling context.