Question

The Simanski family is purchasing a new sofa. They find one they like that is on sale for off. If the sales tax rate in their state is , what will be the final cost on the sofa that was originally priced at ?

Answer 1

You're missing the given values in the question....

Answer 2

Well, I can't see the numbers you tried to put in your question, so I'll work the problem out with variables instead.

Let x = original price of sofa, y = percent off for sale, z = sales tax rate (convert the percents into decimals).

To get the sale price, multiply x by (1-z). That is, if the sale were 20% off, you would still be paying 80% of the price.

To get the amount paid after taxes, take the number you just got and multiply by (1+y), since you're paying the price of the sofa, plus an additional percent.

That's the way the problem works out, though I imagine it'd be clearer with actual numbers.