Answer:
B. 41,040
Explanation:
Janice has a rollercoaster ride of a salary. She starts with 40,000 bucks a year, which is not bad. But then she gets a sweet 8% raise after the first year, which bumps her up to 43,200. That's a nice chunk of change. But then disaster strikes. She has to take a 5% pay cut after the second year, which brings her down to 41,040. Ouch. That hurts. She hopes for a better third year, but nothing changes. She's stuck with 41,040 for the whole year. Poor Janice.
How do we know all this? Well, we use some math magic called percentage increase and decrease. It's a simple formula that tells us how much something changes when it goes up or down by a certain percentage. Here it is:
percentage increase/decrease = (new value - old value) / old value × 100%
We can use this formula to find Janice's new salary after each year. For example, after the first year, her new salary is 8% more than her old salary of 40,000. So we plug in the numbers and get:
percentage increase = (43,200 - 40,000) / 40,000 × 100%
percentage increase = 3,200 / 40,000 × 100%
percentage increase = 0.08 × 100%
percentage increase = 8%
That checks out. We can do the same thing for the second year, but this time we have to use percentage decrease because her salary goes down by 5%. So we get:
percentage decrease = (41,040 - 43,200) / 43,200 × 100%
percentage decrease = -2,160 / 43,200 × 100%
percentage decrease = -0.05 × 100%
percentage decrease = -5%
That also checks out. And for the third year, there is no change in her salary, so the percentage increase/decrease is zero.
So now we know Janice's salary for each year: 40,000 for the first year, 43,200 for the second year, and 41,040 for the third year. The question asks us what her salary is for the third year, so the answer is B.