Question

SHOPPING Marta got 60% off a pair of shoes. If the shoes cost $9.75 (before sales tax), what was the original price of the shoes?

Short answer

The original cost of the shoes is 16.25 dollars.

Step-by-step solution

Step 1. Let x be the cost of shoes before the tax and y be the original cost.

$\begin{array}{l}\text{Shoescostbeforethetax}=9.75\text{dollars}\\ \text{Offontheshoes}=60\%\end{array}$

Step 2. Formula used.

To find what percent is a number x of another number y, use the below formula.

$\begin{array}{l}x\text{ispercentof}y=\frac{x\times 100}{y}\%\\ \text{Where}x\text{isgivevalueand}y\text{betheoriginalvalue}\end{array}$

Step 3. Calculate the percent of saline in pure water.

$\begin{array}{l}\text{Originalcostoftheshoes}\\ \frac{9.75\times 100}{y}=60\%\\ y=\frac{9.75\times 100}{60}\\ y=16.25\text{dollars}\end{array}$

Therefore, the original cost of the shoes is 16.25 dollar.