document.write( "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?\r
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Algebra.Com's Answer #847449 by greenestamps(13200)\"\" \"About 
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\n" ); document.write( "The solution method shown by the other tutor is fine, but it is slow and inefficient.

\n" ); document.write( "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.

\n" ); document.write( "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.

\n" ); document.write( "Then the final price after the 20% increase and the reduction of 10% is

\n" ); document.write( "(original price) * (1.2) * (0.9)

\n" ); document.write( "\"80%281.2%29%28.9%29=86.4\"

\n" ); document.write( "ANSWER: $86.40

\n" ); document.write( "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.

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