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i need major help on this math problem?!?

here's the problem, mr. olson went to the store to purchase some school clothes for his children during a 15% off end of summer discount sale. after the discount, the price of the pants is 14.50. what was the price of the pair of pants before the discount? plz show me how to do this cuz i've never been able to get the right answer. also i need answers soon cuz this is due tomorrow.

10 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    here's your formula:

    x=original price of the item, what you're solving for.

    x(1-.15)=14.50.

    it's 1-.15 because you don't want 15% of x, you want 15% OFF of x. so you really want 85% of x.

    divide 14.50 by .85, and you'll have x.

    (it's not 14.50 X 115% because then you're adding 15% of 14.50 to it, not 15% of the original amount you had. 15% of 14.50 does NOT equal 15% of x because x is larger.)

    the pants are 17.06 NOT 16.68.

    the way you can double check your answer is to take what you got for x and solve the problem backwards. so let's take $16.68 and show why it's wrong.

    16.68*.15= 2.50200 (15% OFF 16.68)

    16.68-2.50200=14.18 approx.

    14.18 DOES NOT equal 14.50, which was the discounted price of the pants.

    17.06*.15=2.559

    17.06-2.559=14.50.

    17.06 is the correct answer.

  • 1 decade ago

    This is the kinda long way of doing this but it is the easiest to understand

    14.50 = 85% of the original price

    so divide 14.50 by 85 to find 1% of the original price

    which equals .1706

    multiply .1706 by 100 to find the original price.

    17.06 was the original price of the pants

    THE ANSWER IS NOT 16.68 IT IS 17.06!!!!!!!!!!

  • 1 decade ago

    OK. I know that this method is a little lame. But what I do is find 10%, to get that you divide the number by ten, and than figure out half of 10%.

    Add them together and you have your percentage.

  • 1 decade ago

    ok so u do

    14.50 X .15

    to find out how much 15% is of 14.50

    then u add the answer to 14.50

    14.50 + 2.18=16.68

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  • 1 decade ago

    14.50 times .15 take the answer 2.175 or 2.18 and add it to 14.50 answer is 16.68

  • 1 decade ago

    the answer would be 16.67 because you have to multiply .15 from the 15% and 14.50 and you get 2.17 the add 2.17 to 14.50 and you get 16.67

    Source(s): well i'm advanced on math its my thing
  • 1 decade ago

    It's crazily easy

    u can think of coming and ask this question

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    the Pants were $17.06

  • 1 decade ago

    17.06

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    $16.68

    Source(s): 14.50 x 115%
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