Question

Magdalena buys a lawnmower that costs $122.50. The sale tax in her town is 8%. Write an equation of the form y = kx to represent the amount of tax y on an item that costs x dollars. Use the equation to find the amount of tax on the lawn mower.

Answer 1

The equation to represent the amount of tax y on an item that costs x dollars with an 8% sales tax rate is y = 0.08x. Using this equation, the amount of tax on a lawnmower that costs $122.50 is calculated to be $9.80.

Step-by-step explanation:

To write an equation for the amount of tax y on an item that costs x dollars, we can use the sales tax rate as the constant of proportionality k. Since the sales tax rate is 8%, we first convert this percentage to a decimal by dividing by 100, which gives us 0.08. Therefore, the equation will be y = 0.08x.

Now, we can use this equation to find the amount of tax on the lawnmower that costs $122.50. By substituting x with 122.50 in the equation, we get:

y = 0.08 × 122.50

y = $9.80

So, the amount of sales tax on the lawnmower is $9.80.