Graphing Inequalities (Jump to: Lecture | Video )

Inequalities can be graphed in the same way as regular equations.

Figure 1.

Let's try graphing the above inequality. Start by graphing the line as if it is a normal equation:

Figure 2.

Here, we've used a dotted line. A dotted line is plotted when dealing with either the Greater Than (">") or Less Than ("<") symbol. A normal line is plotted when dealing with either the Greater Than or Equal to (">") or Less Than or Equal to ("<") symbol.

Figure 3.

To finish, we shade the area above the dotted line. Any ordered pair (x and y coordinates) within the purple area is a valid solution to our inequality.