Question 304923
The quarterly profit earning for XYZ corporation are:


First quarter equals 25%
Second quarter equals 15%
Third quarter equals 38%
Fourth quarter equals 22%


These earning are expressed as a percent of the yearly earnings for 2007.


If the first quarter earnings were $54,000, this means that the yearly earnings must have been $54,000 / .25 = $216,000.


25% of $216,000 equals $54,000


Now that you have the yearly earnings, you can determine the earnings for each quarter.


They would be:


First quarter equals 25% of $216,000 = $54,000
Second quarter equals 15% of $216,000 = $32,400
Third quarter equals 38% of $216,000 = $82,080
Fourth quarter equals 22% of $216,000 = $47,520


Sum up the quarterly earnings to get $216,000


The question is what were the earnings in the third quarter.


the answer is $82,080.


You could have solved it directly without actually determining the yearly eaarnings as follows:


Let Y equal the yearly earnings.


.25 * Y = $54,000 which means that Y = $54,000 / .25


The third quarter earnings are equal to .38 * Y.


Since you know that Y = $54,000 / .25, then the third quarter earnings are equal to:


.38 * ($54,000/.25) which becomes (.38/.25) * ($54,000) which becomes 1.52 * $54,000 which becomes $82,080.


Third quarter earnings are $82,080.


You get the same answer either way.