# discount problem

• October 30th 2008, 12:25 PM
nancymcwilliams
discount problem
17. A purchase is made under the following conditions. There is a 25% discount due to a sale, another 10% discount because of the size of the purchase, and a 4% discount for paying cash. These discounts are successive. That is they are taken one after the other. The customer paid $194.40. What was the original purchase price before any discounts were considered? we are not allowed to use algebra. • October 30th 2008, 12:36 PM ajj86 Answer Well, I got exactly$300, but that was with setting up equations. How else are you supposed to do this problem if you don't use algebra. Were you given any hints or techniques by the teacher?
• October 30th 2008, 12:56 PM
nancymcwilliams
no hints, we dont use algebra because these are actuall middle school problems. and 6 and 7 th graders dont use algebra. just percents and fractions.
• October 30th 2008, 01:12 PM
masters
Quote:

Originally Posted by nancymcwilliams
17. A purchase is made under the following conditions. There is a 25% discount due to a sale, another 10% discount because of the size of the purchase, and a 4% discount for paying cash. These discounts are successive. That is they are taken one after the other. The customer paid $194.40. What was the original purchase price before any discounts were considered? we are not allowed to use algebra. Let's work backward. Ordinarily, you would multiply the discount % by the original cost and subtract it to get the next discounted price. This way, we'll divide the discounted price by 100%-% discount to find out what the price was before the discount. Start with the final selling price of$194.40

The selling price before the 4% discount was $194.40 / (96%) =$202.50

The selling price before the 10% discount was $202.50 / (90%) =$225.00

The selling price before the 25% discount was $225.00/ (75%) =$300.00

To check we'll multiply the original price by (100% - % discount) to see if we arrive at $194.40. Remember, if the original price is$300.00, and a discount of 25% is applied, the selling price is 75% of \$300.00. Here's how it breaks out.

$\300.00 \times .75 = \225.00$

$\225.00 \times .90 = \202.50$

$\202.50 \times .96 = \194.40$

So, it checks out, and we didn't use any algebra.