Finding percentage?

Question

Can someone help me with the technique on how to work out this type of question:

After a 15% decrease the top costs £500. What did it cost before the sale? im just a bit stuck on what to do with the numbers
p.s i dont want the answer, just a way to work it out.

Answer 1

1. So £500 = 85% (100-15)
2. Divide 500 by 85, then multiply your answer by 100.

To check your answer...
1. Divide it by 100 and mutiply it by 85. If you get 500 your answer is correct!

(PS. Remember only to round your answer to 2 decimal places, which you must do in ths case because it is showing money, at the end, otherwise your answer won't come out correct!)

Answer 2

15 x 500 then divide that total by 100. Add this onto the cost of the top to get the cost before sale.

Answer 3

£500=85%
u then find out what 1% is by dividing 500 by 85.
Then X that by 15 to work out what the 15% was and add the answer for 15% to the £500.

gd luck

Answer 4

I've never read such a load of gobbledegook in my life, talk about complicating the issue?
A very simple way to work it out in your head:-
10% means you just knock a zero off the end so if your top cost £1000 then 10% of that amount =£100 so 5% =half of that which is £50 so a total of 15 % =£150 ! If your top was selling for £1000 after 15% off then it cost £1150 before the deduction'
Your £500 (cheapo)? top works out at half of those figures.
But how one of your answers ever got that to £588.24 I dread to think.
Of course you wont always get easy figures like yours, but its still pretty simple to work it out in your head given a bit of practise.
BTW those tops you are buying are pretty expensive arent they? , a £500 top, I would be looking for a 95% reduction, how much do you think the cost would be then?

Answer 5

A percentage is a decimal. Therefore 15% = .15

An example: After a 21% decrease in cost, an item sells for £100, determine the original cost.

I like to convert the % to a decimal, in this case 21% = .21
The subtract this (.21) from 1.00 and get .79
divide the sale price by .79 to get the presale price of £126.68

126.68 x .21 = very close to £100

Answer 6

Wow.. how to complicate things...

Ok some on here are right and some are wrong...

Ignore anyone who is telling you to get 15% of £500 pounds and add it on... they are Wrong... they are using £500 and just adding 15%... they are not giving you 15% of the original price...which is what you are trying to find.

The people asking you to look at £500 as 85% of the original are Right... follow them..

Hint - xox_bass_player_xoxis right :)

good luck (I think you'll need it with all these answers to figure out) :)

Answer 7

First, convert 15% into decimal = 0.15
Then, multiply £500 by 0.15 = 75
Then add £500 + 75 = £575
The original cost, before discount was £575

Answer 8

if they took off 15% then this must be 85% of what there was originally, right? So just reverse. instead of multiplying by .85 to get 500 multiply 500 by the reciprocal, or 1/.85 to get the original amount. hope this helps

Answer 9

£500=85% of the original price.

Find 5% of £500, multiply it by 3 to get the 15% that was taken off. Add whatever you get onto £500, that will be your answer.

To find 5% of £500 do.... 0.05x£500=......

Answer 10

First, subtract 15% from 100 which gives you 85
Divide that number by 100 to express the number as a decimal which is 0.85
take 500 and divide by 0.85 to get the answer which is 588.24

I know you said you don't want the answer but I gave it to you so that you know if you did it right.