COLLEGE ALGEBRA

Practice Problems
Solving Equations and Inequalities

Paul Dawkins
College Algebra

Table of Contents

Preface ............................................................................................................................................ ii
Solving Equations and Inequalities .............................................................................................. 3
Introduction ............................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Solutions and Solution Sets ....................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Linear Equations ....................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Application of Linear Equations ............................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Equations With More Than One Variable ................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Quadratic Equations Part I ..................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Quadratic Equations Part II .................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Solving Quadratic Equations : A Summary .............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Application of Quadratic Equations .......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Equations Reducible to Quadratic Form ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Equations with Radicals ............................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Linear Inequalities ..................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Polynomial Inequalities ............................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Rational Inequalities ................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Absolute Value Equations ......................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Absolute Value Inequalities ...................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

2007 Paul Dawkins i http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/terms.aspx

College Algebra

Preface

Here are a set of practice problems for my Algebra notes. If you are viewing the pdf version of
this document (as opposed to viewing it on the web) this document contains only the problems
themselves and no solutions are included in this document. Solutions can be found in a number
of places on the site.

1. If youd like a pdf document containing the solutions go to the note page for the section
youd like solutions for and select the download solutions link from there. Or,

2. Go to the download page for the site http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/download.aspx and
select the section youd like solutions for and a link will be provided there.

3. If youd like to view the solutions on the web or solutions to an individual problem you
can go to the problem set web page, select the problem you want the solution for. At this
point I do not provide pdf versions of individual solutions, but for a particular problem
you can select Printable View from the Solution Pane Options to get a printable
version.

Note that some sections will have more problems than others and some will have more or less of
a variety of problems. Most sections should have a range of difficulty levels in the problems
although this will vary from section to section.

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College Algebra

Solving Equations and Inequalities

Introduction
Here are a set of practice problems for the Solving Equations and Inequalities chapter of my
Algebra notes. If you are viewing the pdf version of this document (as opposed to viewing it on
the web) this document contains only the problems themselves and no solutions are included in
this document. Solutions can be found in a number of places on the site.

4. If youd like a pdf document containing the solutions go to the note page for the section
youd like solutions for and select the download solutions link from there. Or,

5. Go to the download page for the site http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/download.aspx and
select the section youd like solutions for and a link will be provided there.

6. If youd like to view the solutions on the web or solutions to an individual problem you
can go to the problem set web page, select the problem you want the solution for. At this
point I do not provide pdf versions of individual solutions, but for a particular problem
you can select Printable View from the Solution Pane Options to get a printable
version.

Note that some sections will have more problems than others and some will have more or less of
a variety of problems. Most sections should have a range of difficulty levels in the problems
although this will vary from section to section.

Here is a list of topics in this chapter that have practice problems written for them.

Solutions and Solution Sets
Linear Equations
Applications of Linear Equations
Equations With More Than One Variable
Quadratic Equations, Part I
Quadratic Equations, Part II
Quadratic Equations : A Summary
Applications of Quadratic Equations
Equations Reducible to Quadratic Form
Equations with Radicals
Linear Inequalities
Polynomial Inequalities
Rational Inequalities
Absolute Value Equations
Absolute Value Inequalities


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College Algebra
Solutions and Solution Sets
For each of the following determine if the given number is a solution to the given equation or inequality.

1. Is 6 x = a solution to ( ) 2 5 3 1 22 x x = + ?

2. Is 7 t = a solution to
2
3 10 4 8 t t t + = + ?

3. Is 3 t = a solution to
2
3 10 4 8 t t t + = + ?

4. Is 2 w = a solution to
2
8 12
0
2
w w
w
+ +
=
+
?

5. Is 4 z = a solution to
2 2
6 3 z z z + ?

6. Is 0 y = a solution to ( ) ( ) ( ) 2 7 1 4 1 3 4 10 y y y + < + + + ?

7. Is 1 x = a solution to ( )
2
1 3 1 x x + > + ?


Linear Equations
Solve each of the following equations and check your answer.

1. ( ) 4 7 2 3 2 x x x = +

2. ( ) ( ) 2 3 10 6 32 3 w w + =

3.
4 2 3 5
3 4 6
z z
=

4.
2
4 1
25 5
t
t t
=



5.
3 4 7
2
1 1
y
y y
+
= +



6.
5 6 5
3 3 2 3
x
x x
+ =
+



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College Algebra
Application of Linear Equations

1. A widget is being sold in a store for $135.40 and has been marked up 7%. How much did the store pay
for the widget?

2. A store is having a 30% off sale and one item is now being sold for $9.95. What was the original price
of the item?

3. Two planes start out 2800 km apart and move towards each other meeting after 3.5 hours. One plane
flies at 75 km/hour slower than the other plane. What was the speed of each plane?

4. Mike starts out 35 feet in front of Kim and they both start moving towards the right at the same time.
Mike moves at 2 ft/sec while Kim moves at 3.4 ft/sec. How long will it take for Kim to catch up with
Mike?

5. A pump can empty a pool in 7 hours and a different pump can empty the same pool in 12 hours. How
long does it take for both pumps working together to empty the pool?

6. J ohn can paint a house in 28 hours. J ohn and Dave can paint the house in 17 hours working together.
How long would it take Dave to paint the house by himself?

7. How much of a 20% acid solution should we add to 20 gallons of a 42% acid solution to get a 35%
acid solution?

8. We need 100 liters of a 25% saline solution and we only have a 14% solution and a 60% solution.
How much of each should we mix together to get the 100 liters of the 25% solution?

9. We want to fence in a field whose length is twice the width and we have 80 feet of fencing material. If
we use all the fencing material what would the dimensions of the field be?


Equations With More Than One Variable

1. Solve
2
3 4 E v
r

=


for r.

2. Solve
( )
6
4 1
7
h
Q h
s
= + for s.

3. Solve
( )
6
4 1
7
h
Q h
s
= + for h.

4. Solve
1 2 4 3
4 5
t t
A
p p
+
= for t.

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College Algebra
5. Solve
10
3 7
y
x
=

for x.

6. Solve
3
12 9
x
y
x
+
=

for x.


Quadratic Equations Part I
For problems 1 7 solve the quadratic equation by factoring.

1.
2
5 14 0 u u =

2.
2
15 50 x x + =

3.
2
11 28 y y =

4.
2
19 7 6 x x =

5.
2
6 5 w w =

6.
2
16 61 2 20 z z z + =

7.
2
12 25 x x =

For problems 8 & 9 use factoring to solve the equation.

8.
4 3 2
2 3 0 x x x =

9.
5 3
9 t t =

For problems 10 12 use factoring to solve the equation.

10.
2
10
4 3
2
w
w w
w

+ =
+


11.
2
4 5 6 5
1
z z
z z z z
+
+ =
+ +


12.
2 7 5 8
1
5 5
x x
x
x x
+
+ =
+ +


For problems 13 16 use the Square Root Property to solve the equation.

13.
2
9 16 0 u =
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College Algebra

14.
2
15 0 x + =

15. ( )
2
2 36 0 z =

16. ( )
2
6 1 3 0 t + + =


Quadratic Equations Part II
For problems 1 3 complete the square.

1.
2
8 x x +

2.
2
11 u u

3.
2
2 12 z z

For problems 4 8 solve the quadratic equation by completing the square.

4.
2
10 34 0 t t + =

5.
2
8 9 0 v v + =

6.
2
9 16 0 x x + + =

7.
2
4 8 5 0 u u + =

8.
2
2 5 3 0 x x + + =

For problems 9 13 use the quadratic formula to solve the quadratic equation.

9.
2
6 4 0 x x + =

10.
2
9 6 101 w w =

11.
2
8 5 70 5 7 u u u + + =

12.
2
169 20 4 0 t t + =

13.
2 2
2 72 2 58 z z z z + = +


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College Algebra
Solving Quadratic Equations : A Summary
For problems 1 4 use the discriminant to determine the type of roots for the equation. Do not find any
roots.

1.
2
169 182 49 0 x x + =

2.
2
28 61 0 x x + + =

3.
2
49 126 102 0 x x + =

4.
2
9 151 0 x + =


Application of Quadratic Equations

1. The width of a rectangle is 1 m less than twice the length. If the area of the rectangle is 100 m
2
what
are the dimensions of the rectangle?

2. Two cars start out at the same spot. One car starts to drive north at 40 mph and 3 hours later the second
car starts driving to the east at 60 mph. How long after the first car starts driving does it take for the two
cars to be 500 miles apart?

3. Two people can paint a house in 14 hours. Working individually one of the people takes 2 hours more
than it takes the other person to paint the house. How long would it take each person working
individually to paint the house?


Equations Reducible to Quadratic Form
Solve each of the following equations.

1.
6 3
9 8 0 x x + =

2.
4 2
7 18 0 x x

=

3.
2 1
3 3
4 21 27 0 x x + + =

4.
8 4
6 7 0 x x + =

5.
2
2 17
21 0
x x
+ + =

6.
1 11
18 0
x x
+ =
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College Algebra


Equations with Radicals
Solve each of the following equations.

1. 2 3 x x = +

2. 33 2 1 x x = +

3. 7 39 3x x = +

4. 1 2 2 x x = +

5. 1 1 2 4 x x + = +


Linear Inequalities
For problems 1 6 solve each of the following inequalities. Give the solution in both inequality and
interval notations.

1. ( ) ( ) 4 2 1 5 7 4 z z + >

2.
( ) ( )
1 1 1 1
3 4 6 2 10
2 3 2 4
t t t

+ +




3. 1 4 2 10 x < + <

4. 8 3 5 12 z <

5. 0 10 15 23 w

6.
1 1
2 4
6 2
x <

7. If 0 3 x < determine a and b for the inequality : 4 1 a x b + <


Polynomial Inequalities
Solve each of the following inequalities.

1.
2
4 21 u u +
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College Algebra

2.
2
8 12 0 x x + + <

3.
2
4 15 17 t t

4.
2
34 12 z z + >

5.
2
2 1 0 y y +

6.
4 3 2
12 0 t t t + <


Rational Inequalities
Solve each of the following inequalities.

1.
4
0
3
x
x

>
+


2.
2 5
0
7
z
z

3.
2
5 6
0
3
w w
w
+

4.
3 8
2
1
x
x
+
<

5.
4
3
u
u

6.
3 2
6
0
2
t t
t

>

Absolute Value Equations
For problems 1 5 solve each of the equation.

1. 4 7 3 p =

2. 2 4 1 x =

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College Algebra
3. 6 1 3 u u = +

4. 2 3 4 x x =

5.
1
4 4 6
2
z z + =

For problems 6 & 7 find all the real valued solutions to the equation.

6.
2
2 15 x x + =

7.
2
4 1 x + =


Absolute Value Inequalities
Solve each of the following inequalities.

1. 4 9 3 t + <

2. 6 5 10 x

3. 12 1 9 x +

4. 2 1 1 w <

5. 2 7 1 z >

6. 10 3 4 w

7. 4 3 7 z >



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