Questions on Word Problems: Problems on percentages, ratios, and fractions answered by real tutors!

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Question 153170This question is from textbook introductory mathematical analysis , for business ,economics and the life and social science
: commission
A company pays its sales people on a basis of percentage of the first $100,000
in sales , plus a certain percentage of any amount over $100,000 in sales .If one salesperson earned $8500 on sales of $175000 and another sales person earned $14,800 on sales of $280,000 find the two percentages
I have a deep desire to master worded problems, However i am having problems constructing the models.Can you advise me on how solve a problem like this one. I trying hard to learn from examples.

This question is from textbook introductory mathematical analysis , for business ,economics and the life and social science
: commission
A company pays its sales people on a basis of percentage of the first $100,000
in sales , plus a certain percentage of any amount over $100,000 in sales .If one salesperson earned $8500 on sales of $175000 and another sales person earned $14,800 on sales of $280,000 find the two percentages
I have a deep desire to master worded problems, However i am having problems constructing the models.Can you advise me on how solve a problem like this one. I trying hard to learn from examples.

Answer by oscargut(667) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let x= the first percentage (applied to 100000)
Let y = the second percentage (applied to the difference between the sales and 100000)
If one salesperson earned $8500 on sales of $175000
then

and another sales person earned $14,800 on sales of $280,000
then

Then 2 equations are:

doing 1st eq by -1

adding both equations we have:
105000y=6300
then y=0.06 (6%)

then

then x=0.04 (4%)

Answer: 1st percentage is 4% and the second is 6%