Question

A fruit seller had some oranges. He sells 30% oranges and still has 140 oranges. Originally, he had?

Answer 1

Hint: The following percentage question can be solved by firstly finding the value of how much is 30% of total oranges the seller had and then we can put 140 equals to 70% of total oranges and then by using a percentage formula we can solve to get the value of total oranges.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Now, in question it is given that there is a fruit seller who sells 30% oranges of total oranges he had and still he has 140 oranges, what we have to find is how many oranges he already had before selling 30% of its oranges.
Now, let total number of oranges he had before selling 30% of oranges be equals to x oranges and originally he had M oranges
Now, suppose he was having 100 oranges and he was able to sell 30%. So, 30% of 100 oranges will be equal to 30 oranges as if we have total X items then the percentage of x items from total items can be found by formula $ \dfrac{x}{X}\times 100=Y\% $ . Here, we assumed that total oranges are 100 so, X = 100 and he solved 30% of oranges so Y = 30. Putting values of X and Y in $ \dfrac{x}{X}\times 100=Y\% $, we get
 $ \dfrac{x}{100}\times 100=30\% $
On solving we get,
 $ x=30 $
That is he sold out 30 oranges out of 100 oranges so he left with 70% of oranges.
Now, in question it is given that seller was left with 140 oranges so
Now, 70% of oranges = 140
Using formula $ \dfrac{x}{X}\times 100=Y\% $ , we get
 $ \dfrac{70}{100}\times M=140 $ , where M is total number of oranges he originally had
On solving by taking 70 from numerator on left hand side to denominator on right hand side, we get
 $ \dfrac{M}{100}=\dfrac{140}{70} $
On simplifying, we get
 $ \dfrac{M}{100}=2 $
Again on simplifying we get
 $ M=200 $
So, originally the seller had 200 oranges.

Note: It is important to be familiar with the percentage formula while solving questions related percentage and ratio. Always use a symbol of percentage which is ‘%’ so as to differentiate between values of other kinds.