Question

The Smiths spend 12% of their budget on entertainment. Their total budget this year is $2,000 more than last year, and this year they plan to spend $5,640 on entertainment. What was their total budget last year?

Answer 1

45,000

Explanation:

We can create a proportion to find last year's budget. A proportion is an equation where two ratios are set equal to each other. We create two fractions using the budget and percents.

`(12)/(100) =(5640)/(x)`

We begin solving by cross multiplying numerator to denominator of each fraction.

`12(x)=100(5640)\\12x=564000\\(12x)/(12)=(564000)/(12)  \\47000=x`

This is the budget for this year. However this budget is 2000 more than last year.

47000=2000=45000 is last years budget.