Introductory Algebra for College Students (7th Edition)

Published by Pearson
ISBN 10: 0-13417-805-X
ISBN 13: 978-0-13417-805-9

Chapter 2 - Review Exercises - Page 204: 53

Answer

The table originally cost $240.

Work Step by Step

First, we need to define our unknown. What we want to find out is the original price of the table, which we shall designate as $x$. We will need to subtract the amount of the reduction from the original price to get the final price of $180$ dollars. The amount of the 25% reduction can be given by the expression (25%)$(x)$. We cannot work with percentages, so we change the percent into a decimal. We do this by dividing the percentage by $100$ to get rid of the percentage sign. We can now set up the following equation to find the original price of the table: $$x - 0.25x = 180$$ We combine like terms by subtracting: $$0.75x = 180$$ To solve for $x$, we divide both sides of the equation by $0.75$: $$x = 240$$ The table originally cost $240.
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