Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 3.1 AMC 10/12 Find the answer

The difference between a 6.5%6.5\% sales tax and a 6%6\% sales tax on an item priced at 20$ before tax is $\text{(A)}$ .01$
(B)\text{(B)} .10$ $\text{(C)}$ .50$
(D)\text{(D)} 1$ $\text{(E)}$ 10$

Multiple choice: answer with the letter of the option you want.

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 6.5%6.5\% increase will be 20×6.5%20 \times 6.5\%, and the price of it after a 6%6\% increase will be 20×6%20 \times 6\%. And what we're trying to find is 6.5%×206%×206.5\% \times 20 - 6\% \times 20, 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, 2020, 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*}
.10.10 is choice B\boxed{\text{B}}

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.