ShmoopTube

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Put this in your calculator and shmoop it...

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Jack paid a total of $35.00 plus tax for a

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sweater that was originally $54.00, plus tax. It sounds like a steal, but you should see

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the sweater. Jack's total included an 8% sales tax. What

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was the percent discount of the sweater?

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And here are the potential answers...

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New minus old over old. New minus old over old. New minus old over old...

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That's your mantra when encountering problems like this one baby. Don't forget it. Ever.

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Let's plug in the 54 plus tax as the old... and 35 plus tax as the new.

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First, we have to clean up the tax stuff. If only our government would follow our lead...

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For the 54 we have to get the tax dollar amount, so we multiply by 1.08 to get $58.32.

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Now do the same for the 35, multiply 35 by 1.08 and we get $37.80.

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So we paid $37.80 minus $58.32 over $58.32... and it looks like we've got ourselves an equation.

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When we do the math, we get -$20.52 over $58.32.

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The negative sign means that there is a decrease in price...

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...which gives us a discount of .35... or 35%.

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Answer A.

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As in, "Adorable."

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