Question

There is a "40% off sale" at a store. Erica wants to buy a rowboat. The sale price is $351. What was the original price?

Answer 1

@phi @amistre @radar @Darrius

Answer 2

call the original price "x"

x - 40% of x is how much you pay
x - 40% of x = 351
can you find x ?

Answer 3

Is it also like
is/of?

I set up a proportion of 341/x=4/10

Answer 4

if you are careful. x is 100% of the cost.
the sale takes 40% off : 100% - 40% = 60%
the sales price is 60% of the full cost.

Let's change 60% to 0.6

we can say
\[ \frac{x}{1} = \frac{351}{0.6} \]
that says full price is to 1 as sales price is to 0.6

Answer 5

If you do it this way
x - 40% of x = 351
change 40% to 0.4
x - 0.4x = 351
"factor out" x
x(1-0.4) = 351
1- 0.4 = 0.6 , so you get
0.6x = 351
divide both sides by 0.6
x = 351/0.6

Answer 6

Just a short question. What do you mean by "factoring out"?