How do you translate word phrases "there must be at least a hundred" into algebraic expressions?

1 Answer
May 6, 2016

n >= 100n100

Explanation:

This phrase seems like it is talking about a count of items rather than some kind of continuous measurement. So choose a variable name like nn, which would typically be used to stand for an integer quantity, rather than xx or zz, etc.

If you wanted to be explicit about nn being an integer, you could write n in ZZ, which means n is in the set of all integers (ZZ).

The compound symbol >= means that the expression to the left is greater than or equal to the expression on the right.

In our case n >= 100 means n is greater than or equal to 100.

In other words n is at least one hundred.