Stella needs to fill a small pool with at least 35 gallons of water for her dog. There is currently 5 1/2 gallons of water in the pool.
If she is using a bucket that can hold 1 1/4 gallons of water, how many buckets of water, x, will she need to reach her goal? Write an inequality that shows the minimum number of buckets needed to fill the pool.
To find the number of buckets, we need to determine how many times the bucket can be filled and poured into the pool until the goal of at least 35 gallons is reached.
The bucket can hold 1 1/4 gallons of water, which is the same as 5/4 gallons.
Let's assume Stella will need x buckets to reach her goal.
She currently has 5 1/2 gallons of water in the pool, which is the same as 11/2 gallons.
To fill the pool with at least 35 gallons, she needs to add 35 - 5 1/2 gallons.
So the inequality that represents the minimum number of buckets needed to fill the pool is:
(x)(5/4) + 11/2 ≥ 35