Question 718920: A wool suit, discounted by 20% for a clearance sale, has a price tag of $620. What was the suit's original price? Answer by jsmallt9(3758) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! First of all, this problem has nothing to do with mixtures (the category in which you posted this problem). I have changed the category to an appropriate one. In the future try to post in an appropriate category. It will increase your chances of getting a quick reply.
There are a couple of ways to solve this:
The fastest way requires that we are able to answer the equation: "If 20% was taken off the original price, what percent of the original price will we actually end up paying?" If the answer of 80% is obvious to you then we can use this to find the solution more quickly. The $162 is 80% of the original price. We can get a solution by either of the following:
Translating "$162 is 80% of the original price" into an algebraic expression:
(Note: Don't use percents in equations. Use the decimal or fractional equivalent. This is why the equation above has 0.80 and not 80.)
Use a proportion:
Subtracting the discount from the original price should be $162:
In all three equations above, the "x" is the original price. Pick an equation and solve it to get your answer. (Round to two decimal places if you get more than two in your answer.) If you want to check, solve two (or all three) equations. Every equation should give you the same answer.
(