Question

The price of a television is marked down for a weekend sale. After the sale is over, the price of the television is back to its original price. Are the percent of decrease and the percent of increase the same? Explain your thinking​

Answer 1

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Answer:

No. The bases for computing percentages are different.

Explanation:

Suppose the original price is $100 and it is marked down 20%. Then the amount of markdown is 0.20×$100 = $20. The marked-down price is then $100 -20 = $80.

After the sale, the price increase of $20 is computed using the base price of $80:

increase % = $20/$80 × 100% = 25%

The percentage decrease and increase are different because they are computed using different numbers as the reference.

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Additional comment

The closer to zero the percentages are, the closer they are to being the same. A 1% markdown will equate to a 1.010101...% markup, for example.