Question

An item normally $15.99 is listed as being on sale for 30% off its original price, what must you pay?

A discount store promises that all the items it sells are 40% of their normal asking retail price. If one buys shoes that normally retail for $60.99 what is the price you would expect to pay?
Describe how you would answer each question
Then rewrite the percent off problem as a percent of problem.

Answer 1

You must pay $11.19 for an item whose original price is $15.99 and is on sale for 30% off its original price.

You must pay $24.40 for an item whose original price is $60.99 and is on sale for 40% of their normal retail price.

Explanation:

For the first problem, it states that the item is on sale for 30% off its original price. If the original price is 100%, this means that you will only have to pay 100%-30%=70% of the original price.

There are different ways in which you can calculate a percentage, being the easiest one to turn the 70% into a decimal number and then multiplying it by the original price. In order to turn a percentage into a decimal number, we must divide it into 100% so we get:

`(70\%)/(100\%)=0.7`

so, 70% of $15.99 is:

$15.99*0.7=$11.19

So you must pay $11.19 for an item whose original price is $15.99 and is on sale for 30% off its original price.

The second problem is solved similarly, with the difference that for the second problem, they tell you that the price is directly 40% of its normal retail price, this is we need to calculate 40% of $60.99.

First, we turn the 40% into a decimal number:

`(40\%)/(100\%) =0.4`

and next we calculate the percentage:

$60.99*0.4=$24.40

so

You must pay $24.40 for an item whose original price is $60.99 and is on sale for 40% of their normal retail price.