Question i- why doesn't the sign switch since its negative

I don't see any negative, but the inequality sign only changes when you divide or multiply by a negative number.

Multiplying or dividing both sides by a positive number does not change the inequality sign.

Adding or subtracting the same number from both sides also does not change the inequality sign.

In this case, you would be multiplying both sides by +9, so there's no reason why the inequality sign should change.

The mode of the numbers is 29.