Question

Maria and Edwin have $23.00 each to spend at a book fair, where all students receive a 25% discount. They both want to purchase a copy of the same book, which normally sells for $26.50 plus 10% sales tax. To check if she has enough to purchase the book, Maria takes 25% of $26.50 and subtracts that amount from the normal price. She takes 10% of the discounted selling price and adds it back to find the purchase amount. Edwin takes 75% of the normal purchase price and then computes 110% of the reduced price. Is Maria correct? Is Edwin correct? Do they have enough money to purchase the book? Explain your answer using complete sentences, and show your work.
@Ogradyer

Answer 1

I always had trouble doing percents, but my last algebra teacher taught me an easy way, where you turn the percent into a decimal.

Maria: to find 25% of 26.50, you multiply 26.50 by 0.25 to get 6.625. now, you subtract 6.625 from 26.50 to get 19.875. which would round to 19.88$. To find the 10% sales tax, you multiply 19.88 by 0.10 or 0.1 to get 1.988. that would round to 2.00. She would then add 19.88 and 2.00 to get 21.88$. 

Edwin: I am not even sure how to figure out Edwin's math, his is not even comprehendible for me. 

When I'm shopping, I always use Maria's method to figure out the price of things, therefore, I am 99% sure she is correct and Edwin is not. If it said that they both came with 23$, and the price of the book is now only 21.88, then yes, they have enough money to purchase the book.

and sorry this took long, I'm multitasking.