Final answer:
To determine the total cost including sales tax, convert the tax rate to a decimal, multiply by the item's price to find the tax amount, then add it to the original price.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the total cost of an item including sales tax, you first need to convert the sales tax rate to a decimal. With a sales tax rate of 9.5%, you would convert this percentage to a decimal by dividing by 100, which gives you 0.095. Multiply the item's price by this decimal to find the amount of sales tax, then add that to the original price to get the total cost.
Here's the formula: Amount of sales tax = price × rate of sales tax
For example, if the price tag is $20.98, the calculation would be $20.98 × 0.095 = $1.9931. After rounding to the nearest cent, the sales tax would be $1.99. Finally, add this to the original price to find the total: $20.98 + $1.99 = $22.97.