Increasing a value by 3% is the same as taking 103% of it - you have the original price (100%) plus an additional 3% of it. Let's call the original price here p. We're told that after a 3% increase, the price goes up to £650. Put another way: 103% of p is £650. In equation form:
To solve for p, we can simply divide both sides of our equation by 1.03 to get
So our orignal amount, to the nearest penny, was £631.07
.33 with a line over the .33 because it is not able to be simplified into a whole decimal when ever both numbers are a factor of 3 besides when it is half that will happen