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 : 0.35(28.50) = 9.975....28.50 - 9.975 = 18.525....0.10(18.525) = 1.8525...18.525 + 1.8525 = 20.3775..rounds to 20.38 <=

Lara : 0.65(28.50) = 18.525....1.10(18.525) = 20.3775...rounds to 20.38 <=

They are both correct....and they DO have enough money to purchase the books. On their work, they both basically did the same thing, one just did it by adding/subtracting and the other did it by multiplying.