Question

Last year, a property manager bought seven identical snow shovels and nine identical bags of salt. The total cost of the snow shovels was $241.50, before tax, and each bag of salt cost $6.20, before tax. This year, the property manager bought 3 identical snow shovels and six identical bags of salt. The total cost of the snow shovels was $105.57, before tax, and the total cost of the bags of salt was $39.06, before tax. Determine the item with the greatest percent increase in the price from last year. Be sure to include the percent increase for this time to the nearest percent.

Answer 1

Explanation:

The formula to approach this shall be:

( Final price - Initial price )/ Final price × 100/1 ............. 1

Hence for the snow shovels

Initial price = $241.50 for 7

Each will cost = $241.50/7

= $34.5

Final price for snow shovels

= $105.57 for 3 shovels

Each will cost = $105.57/3

= $35.19

Now considering the bags of salt

Initial price = $6.20 each

Final price = $39.06 for 6 bags

Each bag cost = $39.06/6

= $6.51

Now apply the formula in equation (1)

For snow shovels

($35.19- $34.5)/$34.5 × 100/1

= 0.69/34.5 × 100/1

= 0.02×100/1

= 2%

For bags of salt

($6.51-$6.20)/$6.20 ×100/1

0.31/6.20×100/1

0.05×100/1

= 5%

Hence from the above solution, we can now deduce that shovel increased by 2% while bags of salt went up by 5%.