Aclassroom has more boys than girls, and it has 8 girls. furthermore, each student in the classroom has at least 2 pencils. let b represent the number of boys and let p represent the total number of pencils in the classroom. let's compare the expressions p and 30. which statement is correct?

Choices are:

p>30

p<30

p=30

not enough information to tell

Answer is p>30

Step-by-step explanation:

Since there are more boys than girls, there must be at least 9 boys.  Plug into equation:  (b+8) represents number of students.  If they each have at least 2 pencils we would use 2(b+8).  Plugging in  9 for the boys we have: 2(9+8)=?

2(17)=34.  So with the minimum number of boys there would be at least 34 pencils, so the answer is p>30

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