Question

The students at midtown middle school sold flowers as a fundraiser in September and in October in October they charged $1.50 for each flower October price was 20% increase of the September price what was the price of the flowers of September

Answer 1

In September, the flowers cost $1.20 each

Explanation:

whilst worded weirdly, this question is simply asking for

$1.50 (or simply 1.5) - 20%

1.5 - 20% = ____

The first step is to calculate 1%. This is simply dividing the whole number (in this case 1.5) by 100.

1.5 ÷ 100 = 0.015

therefore 0.015 = 1%

Now to calculate how much we need to subtract from the total (1.5), we must multiply 1% by 20

1% x 20 = 20%

0.015 x 20 = 0.3

therefore 0.3 = 20%

now we know this, we can return to our original equation 1.5 - 20%

We now know 20% = 0.3 so we can substitute it in our equation

1.5 - 0.3 = 1.2

therefore the answer to the question is 1.2 (or $1.20)