Percentage word problems

Question

when the tax on cigarettes was increased by 5%, the price on a certain pack became 5.60. What was the original price?

Answer 1

Percentage word problems

when the tax on cigarettes was increased by 5%, the price on a certain pack became 5.60. What was the original price?

5% is represented as a decimal by 0.05. To increase a value by 5%, you can multiply the original value by .05, then add that answer to the original value. For instance, add 5% to 100. multiply 100 by .05 and you get 5. add that back to 100 and you get 105. But it is much quicker, when ADDING 5%, to simply multiply the original number by 1.05, which is the same as 105%. 100 X 1.05 is 105 (same answer).

Since we know what they did with the original number to get to 5.60, we can set up an equation to find the original number. Let y be the original price of the cigarettes.

y X 1.05 = 5.60.

Now solve for y to find the original price. (you will have to round your answer)