Question

A company uses X amount of plastic to make bags. The company decreases this amount by 40%. Which expression represents the amount of plastic used after this decrease?

Answer 1

The correct answer is X - 40% of X = 0.6 X, where X is the amount of plastic the company used initially.

Explanation:

A company uses X amount of plastic to make bags.

But now the company decreases this amount by 40%.

Decrease in amount of plastic used is 40 % of X = 0.4X.

Therefore the expression that represents the amount of plastic used after this decrease is X - 40 % of X = X - 0.4X = 0.6X.

Thus after the decrease the company now uses 0.6X amount of plastic which is 40% less than the initial.