Question

There is a sales tax $14 of on an item that costs $147 before tax. A second item costs 178.50 before tax. What is the sales tax on the second item?

Answer 1

I'm assuming that the rate of the sales tax is the same, since that information is not explicitly given in the word problem. We would solve this problem with proportions -

\[14/147 = x/178.50\]
Then, we would multiply cross products ("property of proportions")

\[14(178.50) = 147(x)\]
This simplifies to

\[2499=147(x)\]
Now, we want to isolate the x so that we can find our answer. We do this by dividing both sides by 147.

\[2499/147 = 147(x)/147\]

So we are left with \[17 = x\] which is your final answer.

Answer 2

thank you

Answer 3

Sure, any time! :)