Final answer:
To calculate the total cost of an item with sales tax, convert the tax rate to a decimal, multiply by the price to get the sales tax, round to the nearest cent, and add it to the item's price. For a $85 jacket with a 7.5% sales tax, the total cost is $91.38.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the total cost of an item including sales tax, you need to first determine the amount of sales tax by converting the tax rate to a decimal and then multiplying it by the item's price.
For example, if Emily purchased a jacket for $85 and the sales tax is 7.5%, you would calculate the sales tax as follows:
Amount of sales tax = price × rate of sales tax
Amount of sales tax = $85 × 0.075
Amount of sales tax = $6.375
The sales tax is then rounded to the nearest cent, making it $6.38. To get the total cost, you add the sales tax to the original price:
Total cost = price + sales tax
Total cost = $85 + $6.38
Total cost = $91.38
Therefore, the total cost of the jacket, including sales tax, would be $91.38.