Given:
The formula for total cost is
where, p is the price of item and s is the sales tax rate (as a percent).
You pay $14.77 for an item priced at $14.
To find:
The the tax rate.
Solution:
You pay $14.77 for an item priced at $14. So,
Total cost (T) = $14.77
Price of item (p) = $14
Putting T=14.77 and p=14 in given formula, we get
Multiply both sides by 100.
Divide both sides by 14.
Therefore, the tax rate is 5.5%.