Question

The author of a book was told that he would have to cut the number of pages by 5% for the book to sell at a popular price and still make a profit. If the finished book contained 369 pages, how many pages were in the original form? Round your answer to the nearest integer.

(a) 388 pages
(b) 392 pages
(c) 396 pages
(d) 400 pages

Answer 1

The original number of pages in the book was approximately 388.42 pages, which, when rounded to the nearest integer, gives us 388 pages.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine the number of pages in the original form of the book, we need to calculate the value that represents 100% if 369 pages represent 95% (since the pages were cut by 5%, meaning the finished book has 95% of the original page count). We use the following formula where original number of pages / 95 × 100 equals the total number of pages in the original form.

Let's denote the original number of pages as O. Then we have:

O = × 369 pages / 0.95

O ≈ 388.42 pages

When rounded to the nearest integer, the original number of pages in the book was 388 pages.

Therefore, the correct answer is (a) 388 pages.