The goal here is to find the cost of the painting BEFORE the 60% increase.
To find the cost of the painting, we must take in the information we already have:
Increase percent: 60% Original price: unknown Price after increase: $400
$400 is the price of the painting AFTER the increase has been added. So this equals the cost of the painting before the increase, plus the total amount of the increase (which is 60% of the original price).
The total must be (100% + 60% = 160%) 160% of the original painting price.
To find the original price, we must divide the increased price by the new percentage (160%). But how do we get here?
Well, we have 160% and our (fraction) $400/1%. We will have to switch the 160% and the 1%, giving us..
1% $400/160%
We take 400/160, which is 2.5. But this is only 1% of the original price! We want 100%.
So now, we multiply the 2.5 by 100 to get our answer: $250.
I hope this helps! If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
