Question

Juhi sells a washing machine for Rs. 13,500. She loses 20% in the bargain. What was the price at which she bought it?
A. Rs. 16,875
B. Rs. 17,945
C. Rs. 18,459
D. Rs. 20,000

Answer 1

Hint: It is a word problem related to the money exchange, and the only thing that you need to focus on for solving this problem is the percentage calculation. Let the cost price of the washing machine be a variable and apply the condition that the loss Juhi faced was 20% of the cost price, i.e., Rs. 13,500 is 80% of the cost price to form an equation. Solve the equation to get the answer.

Complete step by step answer:
Given:
The selling price of the washing machine after bargain= Rs. 13,500.
Percentage of loss she had in the bargain= 20%.
Let the price paid by Juhi be x.
Now, interpreting the statement in the question in mathematical form, we get;
$\text{Loss = Rs}\text{. }\dfrac{2}{10}\times x$
$\Rightarrow \text{Loss = Rs}\text{. }\dfrac{2}{10}\times x$
According to the simple marketing norm, if we subtract the loss from the buying price, we will be getting the selling price for which Juhi sold the washing machine.
$\therefore \text{profit/loss = purchasing price - selling price}\text{.}$
Substituting the values the above equation, we get;
$\dfrac{2x}{10}\text{ = x - 13500}$
$\Rightarrow \dfrac{2x}{10}\text{ = }\dfrac{\text{x - 13500}}{1}$
On cross-multiplication, we get;
$\text{2x=10( x - 13500)}$
$\Rightarrow \text{2x=10x - 135000}$
$\Rightarrow 8x=135000$
$\therefore x=\dfrac{135000}{8}=16875$
The price that Juhi paid for buying the Washing machine was Rs. 16,875.

Hence, the answer to the question is option (A) Rs. 16,875.

Note: Don’t get confused and take the 20% of the selling price while you solve, as you should be very clear that the percentage loss or profit are terms related to the actual pricing not to the price for which you crack the deal. The other way of thinking of this is that the selling price might vary from buyer to buyer depending on the bargain they put in, but the percentage should be defined from a fixed mark so that you can easily handle it. The reason that most products in the market have an MRP tag on it making it easier for all the sellers to handle their margins.