Question

Jane paid $60 for an item after she received a 20% discount. Jane friend says this means that the original price of the item was $70. How do you think janes friend arrived at this amount?

Answer 1

If Jane paid $60 after a 20% discount, this simply means that Jane only paid 80% of the price.

Therefore, the rate is 80% and the percentage is $60. To be able to get the original price of the item or the base in this problem, we have the following formula:

`B=(P)/(R)`

where b = base, r = rate, and p = percentage. Since we already know the values of P and R as stated above, let's substitute it to the formula above.

`B=(60)/(0.8)=75`

The original price of the item must be $75 and not what Jane's friend claims that it is $70. In this case, it can be said that Jane's friend could have just been doing an estimation of the original price.