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Plotting an inequality example

Drawing a number line helps visualize 'x is less than 4'. We mark 4 with a circle, not a dot, because 4 isn't included. Then, we color the line below 4, showing all values less than 4. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Created by Sal Khan and Monterey Institute for Technology and Education.

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Video transcript

Graph x is less than 4. So let's draw ourselves a number line over here. So let me draw a number line. I'll start here at 0, so 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And we could go below 0. We'd have negative 1, negative 2, negative 3, negative 4. I could keep going. Now, we want to graph all of the x's that are less than 4, but we're not including 4. It's not less than or equal to 4. It's just less than 4. And to show that we're not going to include 4, what we're going to do is we're going to draw a circle around 4. So this shows us that we're not including 4. If we were including 4, I would make that a solid dot. And to show that we're going to do all the values less than 4, we want to shade in the number line below 4, going down from 4, just like that. And then we can just shade in the arrow just like that. So this right here is all of the values less than 4. And you could test it out. Take any value where there's blue. So there's blue over here, negative 2. Negative 2 is definitely less than 4. If you take this value right here, this 2, it's definitely less than 4. 4 is not included because 4 is not less than 4. It's equal to 4. 5 is not included because 5 is not less than 4.