Question 610986: Can you please help me with this? Help with one and I should beable to finish my other questions on my homework. Please and Thank You!
The author of a book was told that he would have to cut the number of pages by 24% for the book to sell at a popular price and still make a profit.
Step One: If these cuts were made, what percent of the origional number of pages was in the final version?
Step Two: If the finished book contained 283 pages, how many pages were in the original form?
Step Three: If the finished book contained 283 pages, how many pages were cut?
Answer by KMST(5328)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! There are many ways to solve a problem. I believe this is the simplest way, and I think simpler is better. The three steps, as given in the problem, suggest the approach I'm using.
Step One:
100% - 24% = 76%
Cutting the number of pages by 24% leaves 76% of the original number of pages.
Step Two:
If the finished book contained 283 pages, then those 283 pages are 76% of the original number of pages.
How many pages were in the original form of the book?
It was a number that multiplied by  or  or 76% resulted in 283. (The expressions 0.76, and 76% are different ways to express the same number, or ratio, or percentage).
If you are in Algebra or Pre-algebra class, you would say that the book had  pages originally and it was cut down to
 pages, so  = about 372
If you are in 5th grade, you are so smart that you do not need any to know that the answer is 283 divided by 0.76.
Actually, the result of the division was about 372.37, but we need a whole number of pages. Rounding gives us 372, so I would go with 372. That is the simpler answer, and I am betting that it is the expected answer.
However, 76% of 372 pages is 282.72, and 283 pages would be a little more than 76% of 372 pages. If your teacher (or textbook) likes more complicated calculations/answers, they may prefer 373 pages as the original length of the book.
Step Three:
If the finished book contained 283 pages, how many pages were cut?
If 372 pages were reduced to 283, the number of pages cut was
372 pages - 283 pages = 89 pages.
We could also calculate 24% of 372 as 372 times 0.24 = 89.28, but that's a harder, more complicated calculation. (And it hints that we should have cut more than 89 pages, making us doubt the simpler answer).
NOTE: If you like to argue for more complicated answers, just choose 373 pages as the original length and you would have cut 90 pages, which is about 24.1% of 373.
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