SOLUTION: Solve the following application. Business and finance. If the total bill at a restaurant, including a 15% tip, is $65.32, what was the cost of the meal alone? This is what I came

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Question 71870: Solve the following application.
Business and finance. If the total bill at a restaurant, including a 15% tip, is $65.32, what was the cost of the meal alone?
This is what I came up with. Is it right?
$65.32�15%=9.798 or 9.80
65.32-9.79=55.53
$55.53
65.32-9.80=
$55.52

Found 2 solutions by Earlsdon, tutorcecilia:
Answer by Earlsdon(6294) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Well...not quite!
Let x = the price of the meal without tip. The tip is then 15% of x. So the total bill is x + 15% of x. Change the percentage to its decimal equivalent (15% = 0.15) and write the equation.
x + 0.15x = $65.32 Simplify and solve for x.
1.15x = $65.32 Divide both sides by 1.15
x = $65.32/1.15 = $56.80
The cost of the meal alone was $56.80
You can check your own answer by adding $55.52 and 15% of $55.52 to see if you get $65.32
$55.52 + 0.15($55.52) = $55.52 + $8.33 = $63.85 not equal to $65.32

Answer by tutorcecilia(2152) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Use the following formula for computing a bill:
(Cost of meal) + (cost of meal)(tip) = Total bill
.
m+(m)(.15)=65.32 [Plug-in the values; change the percent to a decimal]
m+.15m=65.32
1.15m=65.32 [combine like-terms]
1.15m/1.15=65.32/1.15 [solve for m]
m=56.80
.
Check by plugging in all of the values back into the original equation:
(Cost of meal) + (cost of mean X tip) = Total bill
56.80+(56.80)(.15)=65.32