Question that I cant solve.

Question

I been doing this problem for days and I still cant get the answer,

 

Fox news reported that back-to-school spending per students was $527 in 2006. This year the amount increased to $563. What was the percentage change in back-to-school from 2006 to 2007?

Answer 1

The first data point is (2006, %527).  That establishes the "base" for any percent increase or percentage decrease.  The base of $527 becomes a 'factor" to be multiplied because the word "of" usually means multiply and, often, word (story) problems use the words "percentage of."

 

Now, you may use either a percent(%), a decimal, or a fraction when doing the multiplication.  For example, 50% is 0.50 and 50/100 = 1/2, as needed.

 

The only question regarding this problem is what is "This year?"  Assuming that they mean 2007, we can calculate the change in dollars (plus or minus) and divide by the base (the dollars for 2006) and calculate a percent.

 

So, spending increases from $527 to $563.     $563-$527 = $36

Dividing by the base:    $36 / $527 = 0.068311

     Since the problem asked for percentage change, we report this as  6.8 %.