Question 587964: Please help!!
Due to inflation the price of an item was increased twice, after the second increase the price became 6 times the original. By what percent was the second increase if the first increase was 50%?
Answer by KMST(5328)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! LOT OF EXPLANATIONS (optional reading):
When you increase the price by 50%, you add to the previous price 50% of the previous price. That is 0.50 or  times the previous price.
So, if you started with a price P, after a 50% increase, the new price is
 or  .
The idea, to calculate the new price after a certain percent increase or decrease is:
1) express that percent as a decimal (0.5 for 50%, 0.27 for 27%, 0.045 for 4.5%, and so on), using negative numbers for price decreases.
2) add 1 to that, to get your increase factor
3) multiply the old price times that factor
Example, a $60 dress, on sale at 12% off, costs
$ =$ =$
THE SOLUTION:
From an original price, P, an increase of 50% (0.5 as a decimal) brings the price up to
.
A new increase of x (expressed as a decimal) brings the price up to
If that equals 6 times the original price,
We divide both sides by P, eliminating P, and then solve for x
-->  -->  -->  -->  -->  --> 
A decimal of 3.00 mean an increase of 300%.
COMMENTS (more optional reading):
That is quite an increase.
If the original price was $200, the first 50% increase would have brought the price to $300.
Then the second (300%) increase would have quadrupled the previous $300 price to $1200, 6 times the original price.
That's hyperinflation. Ask anyone from Buenos Aires about it.
(There are other places that have had bad hyperinflation, but none that I visited).
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