Question

Trisha paid $76.80 for a dress at the mall. The dress was on sale for 20% off.

What was the original price of the dress?

Answer 1

Answer: The original price is $96

Explanation:

Since 76.8 is the discounted price after 20% was taken off, we know that 76.8 is 80% of the original price. My way is to set up a equivalent fractions relation thing (I don’t know what to call it), and for this problem it looks like this:

80/100 = 76.8/?
the numerator is the part, or discounted price, and the denominator is the whole, or original price.

Using equivalent fractions, we can find out that ? = 96.

Answer 2

On sale at a deficit of -20% from the original price is saying that the item is at 80% of its original value.

Converting percentages using decimals is a very easy way to fine original values.

So:

$76.80 = 80% of the original value

convert the 80% into a decimal = 0.80

The maths:

$76.80 ÷ 0.8 = $96.00

$96.00 = the original value.