What is the percentage of these two apartments?

Question

You are comparing the prices of two different apartments. The first apartment is new and fully furnished with a monthly rent of $950. The second is a much older basement apartment but the rent is $400 per month. Compare the two apartments by price by filling in the blanks in the sentences below.

The basement apartment is ___% less than the new apartment.

(Round to the nearest tenth.)

The basement apartment is ___% of the new apartment.

(Round to the nearest tenth.)

Answer 1

The formula for the "less than" question would be the difference in the two rents as a percent of the new apartment's rent (the new apartment is the "base" for the calculation). $550/$950 x 100 to convert to a percent. Don't forget to round as required.

If it said the new apartment is what percent more than the basement apartment (the reverse), the calculation would be $550/$400.

For the second question, they're not asking for how much more or less than one apartment is from the other, just the straightforward comparison: $400/$950 x 100 and round.