SOLUTION: Can you please help me solve this problem, it seems like it should be simple, but I cannot figure it out. A carpenter bought a circular power saw at a sale and paid $180. If th

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Question 74212: Can you please help me solve this problem, it seems like it should be simple, but I cannot figure it out.
A carpenter bought a circular power saw at a sale and paid $180. If the price he paid is 20% less than the regular price, what is the original price?
I would appreciate any help you can give me.
Thank You,
Melisa
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let p=original price. If you buy a product that's 20% off, you're buying it with 20 percent of that price subtracted from that price. For instance, if an item is originally priced at $100 and it has a 10% discount you pay 10% less than $100. Or in other words 100-10%(100)=100-.1(100=100-10=90. So you would pay $90 instead of $100. The same idea applies here, but we don't know the original price, so we let that be our unknown.
Subtract like terms
Divide both sides by .8

So the original price was $225

Check:
$225-20% of 225=225-.2(225)=225-45=180 So our answer checks out.