Final answer:
Add the cost of all items to get the total purchase price, calculate 5% sales tax on this total, and then add the tax to the purchase price to find the total charge.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the total charge for the four items purchased with prices of $5.30, $1.29, $0.53, and $0.68, we first need to add these amounts to determine the total purchase price before tax.
Adding these together gives us $5.30 + $1.29 + $0.53 + $0.68 = $7.80.
Next, we calculate the sales tax by converting 5% to a decimal (0.05) and then multiplying it by the total purchase price: $7.80 × 0.05 = $0.39.
Finally, we add the sales tax to the total purchase price to get the total charge:
$7.80 + $0.39 = $8.19.