Answer
The total amount of bags of cement must be $less$ $than$ $39$ in order for the elevator operator to safely travel on the elevator.
Work Step by Step
The exercise wishes us to identify how many bags of cement can be safely lifted by the elevator in one trip if the elevator can hold a maximum of 2,800 pounds. It further states that the elevator operator weighs 265 pounds and each bag of cement weighs 65 pounds. To model the total weight of the elevator, we get: $$Weight = 265 + 65c$$ where $c$ represents the amount of bags of cement on the elevator. Since the elevator can only hold 2,800 pounds, we can say that total weight must be less than 2,800: $$Weight \lt 2,800$$ $$265 + 65c \lt 2,800$$ By solving for $c$: $$65c \lt 2,800 - 265$$ $$65c \lt 2,535$$ $$c \lt 39$$ This means that the total amount of bags of cement must be $less$ $than$ $39$ in order for the elevator operator to safely travel on the elevator.