Final answer:
To find the original price of the swimsuit, divide the sale price of $45.50 by 0.95, resulting in an original price of $47.89.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find the original price of an item before a discount, we need to divide the sale price by the percentage of the price that remains after the discount is applied. In this case, the swimsuit is on sale for $45.50 after a 5% discount. Since a 5% discount means the customer pays 95% of the original price, we first convert this percentage to a decimal by dividing 5 by 100, which gives us 0.05. We subtract this from 1 to get 0.95. Then, we divide the sale price by 0.95 to find the original price:
$45.50 ÷ 0.95 = $47.89 (rounded to the nearest cent).
Therefore, the original price of the swimsuit was $47.89.