A classroom 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