Question

alex and Lara have $21.00 each to spend at a book fair, where all students receive a 35% discount. They both want to purchase a copy of the same book, which normally sells for $28.50 plus 10% sales tax. To check if he has enough to purchase the book, Alex takes 35% of $28.50 and subtracts that amount from the normal price. He takes 10% of the discounted selling price and adds it back to find the purchase amount. Lara takes 65% of the normal purchase price and then computes 110% of the reduced price. Is Alex correct? Is Lara correct? Do they have enough money to purchase the book? Explain your answer using complete sentences, and show your work.

Answer 1

Alex is correct the book would cost $18.52 before taxes adding 10% tax the book would cost an additional $1.85 for a total of $20.37. This would be just under the $21.00 that both Alex and Laura had to spend. Laura tried to combined the 35% discount which you cannot do. So yes they both would be able to purchase the book.