Multi-step inequalities

Multi-step inequalities are solved in exactly the same way as are one step inequalities or two step inequalities. The only difference between them is the number of steps you have to perform in order to get to the solution. Since the number of steps in multi-step inequalities is not limited, they can get pretty complicated. But, if you follow the order of operations, remember all you have learned in previous lessons and with a bit of practice as well as logical reasoning, you will have no trouble whatsoever.

We will show you how to deal with these inequalities on this reasonably difficult example:

-8(11n + 6) + 6(8 + 5n) > 2n + n

The first thing that needs to be done is getting rid of the parentheses. We can do that by multiplying the first parentheses on the left with (-8) and the second one with 6. So now we get:

-88n – 48 + 48 + 30n > 2n + n

Now we have to put all the numbers on the right and all the variables on the left side of the expression. Notice that the only numbers we have in this expression are -48 and 48. When we add them together, we get 0 as a result. So now the expression looks like this:

-88n +30n – 2n – n > 0

Now, let us perform the rest of the additions and subtractions:

-61n > 0

We are not done yet. There is still one more step to perform and that is to divide the whole expression by (-61). Since that is a negative number, keep in mind you have to change the sign of inequality to its opposite. So the last step goes like this:

-61n > 0 |: (-61)

n < 0

The final result is every real number less than zero.

We hope this lesson helped you and that you were able to learn from it. If you have additional questions or comments, please send them via our contact form and we will try to answer them as soon as possible. If you want to practice solving multi-step inequalities some more, feel free to use the math worksheets below.

Multi-step inequalities exams for teachers

Multi-step inequalities worksheets for students