Judy bought a coat @ a 20% discount sale for $72. what was the original price of the coat?

Question

Judy bought a coat @ a 20% discount sale for $72. what was the original price of the coat?

Answer 1

You know that Judy has saved 20%. In other words, the amount she paid was 80% of the whole cost.

$72 = .8X

(In other words, $72 equals 80 percent of the unknown original cost.)

Now just solve for X.

$72 / .8

Your answer is $90.

Answer 2

Well I'm not going to just hand over the answer!!

I will walk you through how you can work it out for yourself though:

The full price = 100%

The available discount = 20% (of the original price)

The reduced price = 80% (of the original price)

You know, therefore, that 80% = $72

So, if 80% = $72 ...

1% = ? (call it x) so...

1% = x.

Therefore the way you work out the original price (or 100%) of the coat is to simply solve the expression 100*x (or 100 times x).

Okay...48 hours on...have you got it yet??

80% = $72...therefore

1% = 72/80...so

100% = (72/80)*100 OR 100*(72/80)

(72/80)=0.9

100% = 100 x 0.9

100% = 90.

Therefore the original cost of the coat is $90.

@ Ellee - what you've done is to ask yourself: 'if the original price of the coat is $72 and I raised the price by 20%, how much would I then sell the coat for?'

Your maths is right (for the question you've asked yourself) but you've answered as per a different scenario to the one posed by the original poster.

Answer 3

72 X 20% = 14.40

$72 + $14.40 = $86.40

The original price was $86.40