Answer: Either [tex]x \le 55[/tex] or [tex]0 \le x \le 55[/tex] depending on your teacher's preference. See the note at the bottom for more info.
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Let x be the speed limit. It is simply a placeholder. Think of it as a box with the number inside. We don't know what the number is, but we know that the largest it can be is 55. It cannot be larger than 55.
So x can be equal to 55 or it can be smaller
Put another way, x is less than or equal to 55 which is written as [tex]x \le 55[/tex] (on the keyboard you would type " x <= 55 " without quotes).
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Note: since negative speeds make no sense, we also must imply that x can't be negative. Your teacher may want you to write this in to clearly state it. If so, then you would also have [tex]x \ge 0[/tex] which when combined with the first inequality, you get this compound inequality [tex]0 \le x \le 55 [/tex] (basically saying "x is some speed between 0 and 55 mph"). This very clearly states the boundaries on what x can be. Though your teacher may want you to stick to the first format as its simpler.