The difference between a sales tax and a sales tax on an item priced at 20$ before tax is
$\text{(A)}$ .01$
.10$
$\text{(C)}$ .50$
1$
$\text{(E)}$ 10$
Solution
The most straightforward method would be to calculate both prices, and subtract. But there's a better method...
Before we start, it's always good to convert the word problems into expressions, we can solve.
So we know that the price of the object after a increase will be , and the price of it after a increase will be . And what we're trying to find is , and if you have at least a little experience in the field of algebra, you'll notice that both of the items have a common factor, , and we can factor the expression into
\begin{align*} (6.5\% - 6\% ) \times 20 &= (.5\% )\times 20 \\ &= \frac{.5}{100}\times 20 \\ &= \frac{1}{200}\times 20 \\ &= .10 \\ \end{align*}
is choice
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