Question

If Vijay purchases a football for \[\$~56.65~\] and this amount includes a tax of 3% on the price of the football, what is the amount, in dollars, that he pays in tax? (Disregard the dollar sign when gridding your answer.)
(a) 1.65
(b) 2
(c) 3.25
(d) 1.27

Answer 1

Hint: Let the price of the football before adding tax be x. If we add 3% of x, i.e., the tax and equate the result to \[\$56.65~\] , we get an equation in terms of x. Solve the equation you get by representing it mathematically and find the value of x. Finally subtract x from \[\$~56.65~\] to get the amount of tax charged.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Let us start the solution to the above question by letting the price of the football before the addition of the tax to be x.
Now, it is given that the tax charged on football is 3%, which actually refers to 3% of the price before addition of the tax, i.e., x. So, the tax in terms of x can be represented as:
$\text{Tax charged}=\dfrac{3}{100}\times x$
Now we know that the final selling price including the tax is \[\$~56.65~\] , so if we add the tax with the price before the tax was charged, the sum should be \[\$56.65~\] . If we represent this in form of mathematical equation, we get
$56.65~=x+\dfrac{3}{100}\times x$
If we take the LCM of the RHS of the equation to be 100, we get
$56.65~=\dfrac{103}{100}x$
$\Rightarrow 5665=103x$
$\Rightarrow x=\dfrac{5665}{103}=\$55$
Now, if we subtract x from \[\$~56.65~\] , we get the amount of tax charged.
$\text{tax charged}=56.65-55=\$1.65$
Hence, the answer to the above question is option (a).

Note: Remember we cannot predict whether a price is including the taxes or excluding the taxes until it is not mentioned in the question, so avoid any assumption related to taxes until mentioned in the question. However, the list price and the MRP are including all taxes and are the highest possible retail price.