Laundry Detergent math question

Question

A box of laundry detergent is on sale for $6.50. If this price represents a 40% discount from the original price, what is the original price to the nearest cent?

Answer 1

$6.50 = 60% of original price 

Original price, call it X, minus 40% of original price = $6.50

 

$6.50/ 0.6 = X / 1

Solve for X and you should get the original price was $10.83

Answer 2

$6.50 represents 60% of the original price, since 40% was knocked off. So this is a simple proportion problem!

 

Remember percent is about part of a whole, so 60% = 0.6, 40% = 0.4, etc.

 

Let's call your original price "x" and use some algebra to find the answer.

 

0.6 * x = $6.50 (see, this is simply what we wrote in the first sentence, just put into a math equation !)

 

Now, let's isolate "x" by itself so we can figure out what it is. To do so, we have to divide both sides of the equation by 0.6. This eliminates the 0.6 from the left and will give us our answer !

 

x = 6.50 / 0.6 = $10.83, the original price of the laundry detergent.

 

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