Question

What is the best approximation of 6% tax on a $102 purchase?

Answer 1

The best approximation would be $6.12

Answer 2

To approximate 6% tax on a $102 purchase, we can round these numbers to make our simplification easier.

Let's change 6% to 5% and round $102 down to $100, which makes our expression 5% tax of $100. This can be expressed as (5% * 100), because the word of represents multiplication in math.

Because we can't multiply percentages, we must find the fractional equivalent of 5%. Percentages are parts of a total 100 percent, so they can be represented by dividing the percent by 100. In this case, this is 5/100.

Now, our expression is 5/100 * 100. If we were to multiply this fraction, the factor of 100 would be in the numerator and would cancel out with the 100 in the denominator. Therefore, we know that the answer is 5 (because the two 100s cancel each other out).

Thus, a good estimate for 6% of $102 is $5. We can check our estimate by multiplying 6/100 * $102, which equals $6.12. Because this number is close to $5, we know that our estimate is accurate.

Hope this helps!