School shirts cost $6.50 each and pants cost $12 each. Thomas has $64 for his school uniform. Write an inequality to find combinations for how many shirts and pants Thomas can buy.

Remember the following inequalities:
< – less than
> – greater than
≤ – less than or equal to
≥ – greater than or equal to
Step 1: Interpret the Prompt
In this type of scenario, you are given the items and the price of each one. The first step is to define the variables that will represent the number for each item.
s = number of shirts bought
p = number of pants bought
The cost of a shirt is $6.50, therefore the expression that represents the total Thomas will spend on the shirts = 6.50s
The cost of pants is $12, therefore the expression that represents the total Thomas will spend on pants = 12p
Step 1: Write Your Inequality
In this case, we are told he has $64, which means he can spend at most $64. This means he can spend less than or equal to $64 so we know the symbol “<” will be involved.
Knowing that the total he will spend is the sum of what he spends on shirts (6.50s) and the total he will spend on pants (12p), now we can construct our inequality:
6.50s + 12p < 64