Suppose a scientist finds that the average female gorilla needs to have at least 2.1 surviving offspring in order for the population to replace itself from generation to generation. How would she write an inequality that shows the number of offspring (c) that will cause the population to decrease from generation to generation?

Question

Suppose a scientist finds that the average female gorilla needs to have at least 2.1 surviving offspring in order for the population to replace itself from generation to generation. How would she write an inequality that shows the number of offspring (c) that will cause the population to decrease from generation to generation?

Answer 1

The scientist would write the following inequality:

c < 2.1

This inequality states that the number of offspring (c) must be less than 2.1 in order for the population to decrease from generation to generation.