Lincoln Middle School plans to collect more than 2000 cans of food in a food drive. So far, 668 cans have been collected. Write an inequality to find the number of cans the school can collect on each of the final 7 days of the drive to meet this goal. Identify what your variable represents.

Let x be the unknown number.

7x + 668 < 2000 = > 7x plus 668 is less than 2000

where:

7x = > x represents the number of cans to be collected in 7 days

668 is the number of cans already collected.

2000 is the target number of cans.

7x + 668 < 2000

- 668 - 668

7x < 1332

:7 : 7

x < 190.30

or

x < 190

To check:

7x + 668 < 2000

7 (190) + 668 < 2000

1330 + 668 < 2000

1998 < 2000