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Linear Inequalities

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Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences

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Introduction

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There are many problems in business and industry in which we are
interested in making decisions that will involve maximizing or
minimizing some quantities. For instance, a construction company

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wants to minimize the time for building structures, an investor may
want to select investments that will maximize profit, and a shipping
company wants to ship goods at a minimum cost. Here we will use
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geometric solution in dealing this kind of problem.
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 Linear Inequations or Inequalities and Their Graphs

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An inequality is a mathematical satement that one quantity or
expression is greater than or less than another quantity or expression.
The symbols > (greater than) and < (leass than) are used in an

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inequality. If we write a ≥ b (read ”a is greater than or equal to b)
we mean that either a > b or a = b. Similarly, a ≤ b (read ”a is less
than or equal to b) means that either a < b or a = b.
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 Examples of linear inequalities

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x ≤ 5 → ”x is less than 5”

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2y > 7 → ”2y is greater than 7”
x − 2y ≥ 10 → ”x − 2y is greater than or equal to 10”.
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 Steps in graphing of linear inequalities

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A solution of the inequality is any number that satisfies the

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inequality and the set of all solutions is called a solution set. The
graphical presentation of a solution set inequality is a plane. Below
are the steps in sketching the graph:

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1. Change the relation form inequality to equality to determine the
boundary of the plane
say for example: for x − 2y ≥ 10 the boundary of its graph is
x − 2y = 10.
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 2. Sketch the boundary line.
Continuing above example we have,

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The cartesian plane is now divided into two, upper plane (above the
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line) and the lower plane (below the line) one of these plane is the
representation of the solution set.

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 3. Pick a test point on each plane (upper plane and lower plane)and
substitute the coordinates of the point to the inequality.
(A test point is any point on a plane.)

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Test point for the upper plane we pick (4, 2): 4 − 2(2) = 0 → not
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greater than 10 (fails to hold).
Test point for the lower plane we pick (20, −10): 20 − 2(−10) = 40
obviously greater than 10 (satisfies the inequality!).

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 4. Shade the region/plane where the point that satisfies the
inequality is located.
In our example point (20, −10) satisfies the inequality x − 2y ≥ 10
and it is located at the lower plane.

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And we are done!

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Systems of linear inequalities using graphical
method

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A system of linear inequalities is composed of two or more

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inequalities in which we are interested on the solution. The solution
set of a system is the region that satisfies all the given inequalities,
that is the intersection of the regions satisfying each inequality.
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 Example systems of linear inequalities using graphical method
Show solution of the given system of inequalities.
3x + y ≤6

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x + y ≤4

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solution of 3x + y ≤ 6 solution of x + y ≤ 4

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 Combine the graphs of inequalities (b) and (c), we have

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The common region is the solution of the system!

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 Now, if we want to determine the extreme point/points of the
common region you just need to solve the intersection between the

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boundary lines.

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In the above example we have the following
Inequalities Boundaries

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3x + y ≤ 6 3x + y = 6
x +y ≤4 x +y =4

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The intersection between 3x + y = 6 and x + y = 4 is (1, 3).
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 Show the solution of the given system of inequalities.

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3x + y ≤ 12

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x +y ≤6
x ≥0
y ≥0
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 Combining the graphs of inequalities
3x + y ≤ 12; x + y ≤ 6; x ≥ 0; y ≥ 0

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 The common region is the solution of the system:
3x + y ≤ 12; x + y ≤ 6; x ≥ 0; y ≥ 0

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The points (0,0), (0,6), (3,3), and (4,0) encloses the region.

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source:

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Mathematics in the Modern World
by Rosalena and Siangco

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graphs are done using geogebra (https://www.geogebra.org/classic)

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