How do you graph the inequality x - 2y<=4?

2 Answers
Nov 30, 2017

The graph should look like this: graph{-2+x/2 [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

With the upper side shaded in.

Explanation:

First, we treat the inequality as an equation.
x-2y<=4 becomes x-2y=4.

Isolate y so that we have the equation in the form y=mx+b

x-2y=4.
-2y=4-x
y=(4-x)/-2
y=-2+x/2
y=1/2 x-2

We graph this. We know that the y-intercept is -2, and we also know that we can plot the points by moving once upward and twice to the right.

We know plug in a x value in the inequality.(Let's try 2.)
2-2y<=4
-2y<=4-2
y>=2/-2
y>=-1
We see that all y values that are located at the upper side of the slope are greater than -1, including the slope.

Nov 30, 2017

graph{-2y <= 4 - x [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

Explanation:

To solve this, you can temporarily change the <= to =. So the equation will now look like this:

x - 2y = 4

Now we can put the equation into the form y = mx + c:

-2y = -x + 4
(We can make this better by dividing both sides by 2)

-y = -1/2x + 2

(You can draw the graph now BUT if the sign is < or > the graph line must be dashed)

To shade the area we need to change that = to <= again, so we end up with:

-y <= -1/2x + 2

A good way to see which side of the graph to shade is to plug in a coordinate above and below the graph line. If the equation is true (meaning the -y coordinate is <= -1/2 xx x coordinate) then that is the side you should shade.

In this case, you need to shade the top of the graph as trying the coordinate (1,1) gives -1 <= 3.5 which is true.

Hope this helps!