Item on sale. How much did it originally cost?

Question

Sheets on sale at DJ's were discounted by 20%, which meant that customers would save $55 per set of sheets. How much did the sheets originally cost?

Answer in a 'let' statement, create an algebraic equation and solve

Answer 1

Debbie,

 

 We know that, if we take 20% off of the original price, we save $55. That means, 20% of the original price is $55. Since we know that "of" in math typically means to multiply and "is" typically means equal to (and that 20%=.20), we can start the answer like this:

 

Let x be the original price of the sheets. Then, we know that

 

 .20x=55  (20% of the original price is $55)

 

Dividing by .20 gives us

 

x=275.    So, the original price of the sheets is $275.