SOLUTION: The price of a pair of sneakers was $80 for the last six months of last year. On January first, the price increased 20%. After the price increase, an employee bought these sneakers

Question 1208921: The price of a pair of sneakers was $80 for the last six months of last year. On January first, the price increased 20%. After the price increase, an employee bought these sneakers with a 10% employee discount. What price did the employee pay?

Found 3 solutions by josgarithmetic, greenestamps, timofer:
Answer by josgarithmetic(39617)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Following the description exactly as described or written

Simplify and compute that.

Answer by greenestamps(13200)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

The solution method shown by the other tutor is fine, but it is slow and inefficient.

Instead of thinking of the new price as the original price plus 20% of the original price, think of it as the old price multiplied by 100%+20% = 120%, or 1.2.

And instead of thinking of the final price with an employee discount of 10% as the price minus 10% of the price, think of it as the price multiplied by 100%-10% = 90%, or by 0.9.

Then the final price after the 20% increase and the reduction of 10% is

(original price) * (1.2) * (0.9)

ANSWER: $86.40

In more complicated problems involving percent increases and/or decreases, doing the calculations as price plus or minus % of price becomes very inefficient. Doing the calculations as price multiplied by a factor representing the price increase or decrease is always much easier.

Answer by timofer(104)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The price was increased from 80 dollars to 80+80/5 so became 80+16, or 96 dollars.

The employee was given a 10% discount on the 96 dollars, so he paid 90% of the 96 dollars
or 0.9*96, which is 86.4 dollars.
RELATED QUESTIONS
The price of a pair of sneakers was $100 for the last 10 months of last year. On January (answered by mccravyedwin,Edwin McCravy,greenestamps)
ms. tripi just got a new pair of sneakers. the sneakers were on sale for $80.99. if tax... (answered by solver91311)
Due to dwindling reserves of copper ore, the price of a 100-foot spool of copper wire... (answered by Fombitz)
The original price for a pair of sneakers is$76.99 if the item was marked down 25% from... (answered by oscargut)
The current price of a pound of coffee is 80% of last year�s price. If it now costs $3.00 (answered by rajagopalan)
The price of a mountain bike increased by 20% in the past year. The new value is %150.... (answered by josmiceli)
A pair of sneakers goes on sale for 10% off the original price. The original price is... (answered by lwsshak3)
During the first 6 months of last year, the interest on an investment was $130 less... (answered by ReadingBoosters)
Suppose you are have purchased a house and need a loan for $255,000. You decide to do a... (answered by Theo)