Final answer:
To find the sales tax percentage, subtract the original price from the total price to get the sales tax amount, and then divide it by the original price. For the given example, the sales tax percentage is 1%. Another example with Emily's jacket also illustrates how to calculate the total cost including sales tax.
Step-by-step explanation:
The shopper paid $808 for an $800 emerald pendant after sales tax was added. To find the sales tax percentage, you first calculate the amount of sales tax paid and then divide it by the original price of the item before tax.
The amount of sales tax paid is $808 - $800 = $8. To find the percentage, you convert the dollar amount to a percentage of the original price using the formula:
Amount of sales tax = price × rate of sales tax
In this case, the rate of sales tax is: $8 ÷ $800 = 0.01, which is 1% when converted to a percentage.
To provide another example, let's say Emily bought a jacket for $85. If the sales tax is 7.5%, first you would convert the percentage to a decimal by dividing by 100, which gives you 0.075.
Then, you multiply by the original price to find the amount of sales tax: $85 × 0.075 = $6.375. You would round this to the nearest cent, which is $6.38.
Finally, you add the original price of the jacket to the sales tax to find the total cost: $85 + $6.38 = $91.38.