PERCENTAGES a pair of Swiss sneakers for $4500; this amount is the
. cost price. On the other hand, to the person who sold
Percent means per 100 or out of a hundred. The
symbol, %, is used to represent percentage. If in a
sample of 100 students, 32 students were above the
age of 15 years, this can be stated as 32 per 100 or
simply 32%. As a fraction, a percent has a
17
denominator of 100, e.g. 17% =
100
Operations with percentages
Working with percentage is fairly easy. You can be
asked to do one of several things:
To find what percent is one number of another
Example 1: What percentage is 45 of 120?
Of means to multiply. Make a fraction of the two
numbers with the number that follows of as the
denominator, and then multiply by 100%.
Finding percentages of values
Example 2: Find 30% of 650.
Write the percentage as a fraction with denominator of
100, then multiply the number that follows the of by
the fraction.
Converting from a percent to decimal
The decimal point is moved two places to the left
when you convert from a percent (60%) to a decimal
(0.60). Some more examples are:
25% = 0.25
114% = 1.14
0.5% = 0.005
To change from decimal to percent
The point is moved two places to the right, e.g.
2.3 as a percent is 230%.
Converting from percent to a fraction
Convert the percent to a decimal, and then to a
fraction. To make the fraction, we match the number
of decimal places with the number of zeroes behind 1.
40
For instance: 40% = 0.40 =
100
Now you can reduce the fraction:
Or
To change from fraction to percentage, we
multiply the fraction by 100%.
3
Example 3: Change to percentage
4
Cost Price and Selling Price
The cost price is the amount of money paid or spent
in the purchasing of an item. Lets say you purchased
you the sneaker this amount is the selling price.
Therefore, the $4500 can be viewed from two
perspectives: the person who is selling the sneakers
and the person who is buying the sneakers. In the
former, $4500 is the selling price but in the latter it is
the cost price.
Profit and Loss
The person who sold the pair of sneakers, called the
vendor had purchased the sneakers previously and
had paid a cost price himself. Now he resells the
sneakers at a new price which is the selling price. If
he sells the sneaker for more than what he paid for it,
the extra money made is called a profit. If however,
he sells it for a price lower than what it cost him, then
he made a loss. Calculating profit and loss is done
with respect to only one person, the vendor who buys
and sells items.
Profit = Selling price (S.P) Cost price (C.P)
Loss = Cost price (C.P) Selling price (S.P)
Both profit and loss can be expressed either in
dollars, or as a percentage of the cost price.
Example 1:
A shopkeeper buys eggs in bulk for $15 each. He
sells them for $20 each. Calculate the profit on each
egg in dollars, and as a percentage of the cost price.
Profit = S.P C.P = $20 - $15
= $5 on each egg
Example 2:
Dejaughn sold his used CXC Chemistry book for
$600, making a 15% loss. What was the cost price of
the book, and what is the loss in dollars?
Losing 15% means that he only recovered 85% of the
cost of the book.
Therefore 85% of the cost price is the selling price.
Example 3:
Maggie sold a pair of jeans for $2100 making a profit
of 20%. How much did Maggie paid for the jeans?
Again, the cost price is required. Since Maggie made
a profit she recovered the cost she paid (100% of it)
plus some extra cash as profit (20%).
This means that altogether Maggie gain 120% of the
cost price when she sold the jeans for $2100.
Maggie paid $1750

Sales Tax and Discount

Sales Tax
Sales tax is a charge applied to the selling of goods
and services, e.g. general consumption tax (G.C.T)
and value-added tax (VAT). The tax is set as a fixed
percentage of the selling price of an item. The total
selling price of the item is the sum of the original
selling price before tax and the sales tax
calculated. Sales tax increases the cost of items.
One of two words usually accompanies sales tax on
the items price tag: inclusive or exclusive. Inclusive
means that the sales tax is already added while
exclusive means it is yet to be added.

Discount
Discount is a decrease in the selling price of an item.
Discounts are normally given when there is a sale
special or a promotional event. Discounts can be
represented in dollar amount or as a percentage.
Both sales tax and discount are applied to the selling
price of an item.

WORKED EXAMPLE 1:
Mays Department Store is having a special on Dolce
&Gabbana handbags. The bags originally are being
sold for $3500 exclusive of G.C.T, which is charged
at 17.5%. The store is offering a discount
of 15%. Calculate the selling price of the handbag if a
special was not being offered. What is the price of the
handbag with the discount?

SOLUTION

Note: The price could also be found by subtracting

the discount from $4112.50 calculated before.