Thread: Help Please

USA today, dated October 28, 2002, commented on the decline in sales of the new VW Beetle. This year, sales have fallen from an average 5,584 per month to 4,289 a month. What is the percent decline in sales? Round to the nearest hundredth percent.

"USA today, dated October 28, 2002, commented on the decline in sales of the new VW Beetle. This year, sales have fallen from an average 5,584 per month to 4,289 a month. What is the percent decline in sales? Round to the nearest hundredth percent."

5,584 - 4,289 = 1,295 cars decline in sales per month.

(new minus old)/(old) times 100% equals percent of change. -----***

(4289 -5584)/(5584) *100%
= (-1295/5584) *100%
= -23.19%

Negative percentage, meaning, a decine.
Therefore, there is a decline of 23.19 percent per month in sales. -----answer.

An interesting point with this question is that it
asks for the percentage decline in sales to the
nearest one hundredth of a percent.

With sales of this size the statistical variation
in sales from year to year when there is no change
in the underlying mean number of sales is ~+/-1%.

So everything after the decimal point in the percentage
change is excessive precision.

RonL