A baseball team has a goal of hitting more than 52 home runs this season. They average 4 home runs each game and have already hit 20 home runs so far. How many more games, x, will it take the baseball team to reach its home run hitting goal if they continue to average 4 home runs per game?
Strictly speaking the answer is x > 8.
They want more than 52.
They already have 20.
They average 4 per game.
\(20 + 4x > 52 \)
subtract 20 from both sides
\( 20 + 4x -20 > 52 - 20; \)
which gives you
\( 4x > 32\)
Now divide both sides by four
\(\frac{4x}{4} > \frac{32}{4}\)
which gives you \(x > 8\)
So the next number (of games) that makes sense and is greater than 8 games is 9. The team need 9 games to meet their goal.
Now, someone might argue with you that the answer is 8, but if you read the problem carefully (which is one of the things you learn in math class) you'll see that the goal was defined as more than 52, and more than 52 is a different thing than 52.
Good luck with math class and remember even Einstein found math hard sometimes, but he didn't give up and he asked for help when he needed it.
Be like Einstein - don't give up.
