A bicycle is on sale for $189.50. The sales tax rate i s 5%. What is the total price?

Answer 1

Hi Douglas,

Thanks for sharing your question. It's tagged as an English question, but it appears to be a math word problem. This is a great question, though, and I will break it down into steps for you:

1) First, you must change the percent to a decimal. You do this by dividing the percent by 100. You can also think of the number 5 as having a decimal at the end (think 5.0) and moving the decimal point two places to the left. Either way, you will end up with the decimal 0.05.

2) The word "of" in math almost always means multiplication. You now find 5% OF the price of $189.50. You already wrote 5% in decimal form as 0.05, which you multiply by the price. 0.05 x 189.50 = $9.475. This number amounts to what you will pay in taxes.

3) The last step is to add up the price of the bicycle with the taxes you will pay! $189.50 + $9.475 = $198.975. Rounding your answer to the nearest cent will give $198.98.

I hope you found this helpful. Thanks for everything, good luck, and take care!

Best,

Zach Borenstein