Question

Commercial agents earn 5% of the cost of each product they sell. If an agent earns $2000 for selling a product, what was the cost of the product?

Answer 1

the cost of the product is "x", which oddly enough is the 100%.

now, we know that the agent earned $2000, and we also know that's 5% of the "x" value, hmmm what's "x"?

`\begin{array}{ccll} amount&\%\\ \cline{1-2} x & 100\\ 2000& 5 \end{array} \implies \cfrac{x}{2000}~~=~~\cfrac{100}{5} \\\\\\ 5x=200000\implies x=\cfrac{200000}{5}\implies x=40000`