Mr Osmond bought a computer that cost 2500$ How much did he pay for the computer if the sales tax was 7%

Question

I am in 6th grade and I have lots of troubles understanding percents. Please Help

Answer 1

Hi Daniel,

While solving percent problems, it is very helpful to separate actual values from percent values and understand that they increase or decrease by the same factor.

For instance, in the above problem it is given that $2500 was the cost and the paid amount was 7% more. The actual paid amount is what is asked in the problem.

Let me describe the problem by separating into percents and actual values.

In terms of percents: cost was 100 amount paid was 107

In terms of actual values: cost was $2500 and amount paid was $x

To find out x express the actual values and percent values as equivalent fractions;

100/107 = 2500/x

100x = 2500*107

x = 2675

Therefore, Mr Osmond paid $2675 for the computer.

Notice, that the final price was calculated using the initial price. An alternate approach would be to compute the 7% increase first and then add it to the initial value.

tax paid: 7% of 2500 = 2500*0.07 = $175

Amount paid = Cost + tax paid = 2500 + 175 = $2675

I hope this clarifies the problem.