Question

In a songwriting competition, the minimum length of a song is 2.5 minutes. The maximum length of a song is 5.5 minutes. Write an absolute value equation that has the minimum and maximum ranks as its solution.

Answer 1

|4 - x| < 1.5 minutes, where x = length of song 
or 
|x - 4| < 1.5 minutes, where x = length of song 

Explanation: 4 minutes is the midpoint between 2.5 and 5.5 and is 1.5 minutes away from both 2.5 and 5.5, so the difference in the length of the song (x) and 4 minutes cannot be greater than 1.5 minutes.