Question

On November 1st, Halloween candy is discounted 60%. If the original price of a bag of candy corn was $5, what is the final price of the candy, including the discount and a 10% sales tax?

$1.50
$1.60
$2.20
$3.30

Answer 1

2.20

Explanation:

we need to deduct the discount from the original $5.

and from that result we then need to add 10% sales tax.

this is NOT 10% of the original $5.

these 2 percentages (60% and 10%) have to be calculated from different base amounts, as their context is different.

so, we deduct 60% from $5.

60% corresponds to 0.6 as factor (60 parts out of 100).

so, what remains is actually 40%.

the sales price is therefore 5×0.4 = $2.

now, for these $2 we need to add 10% sales tax.

10% is again 0.1.

adding it to a base amount gives us the factor (1 + 0.1) = 1.1.

the full price is then

2×1.1 = $2.20