Question

Suppose a friend tells you she paid a total of $31,929 for a car and you'd like to know the car's list price (before taxes) so that you could compare prices at various dealers. Write an equation for the given scenario and find the list price of the car if your friend bought the car in Roswell, where the sales tax is 6.5%.

Answer 1

To find the list price before tax, set up an equation with the total price after tax and the tax rate. Solve by dividing the total paid by the sum of 1 plus the tax rate in decimal form. The car's list price in Roswell, with a 6.5% sales tax, is $30,000.

Step-by-step explanation:

When you want to find the list price of an item before tax, you can set up an equation that includes the total price (after tax) and the tax rate. In this case, you were told that your friend paid a total of $31,929 for a car, including a 6.5% sales tax in Roswell. We will denote the list price of the car as P.

To solve for P, we need to back out the sales tax from the total. The equation looks like this:

P + (P × 0.065) = $31,929

Now we solve for P:

P × (1 + 0.065) = $31,929

P × 1.065 = $31,929

P = $31,929 / 1.065

P = $30,000 (rounded to the nearest dollar)

The list price of the car before tax is $30,000.