Marys landlord raised her rent 25%.if her new rent is $500,how much did she pay before the increase?
A.$375
B.$400
C.$425
D.475
FOR EACH ANSWER,CALCULATE WHAT THE PERCENT INCREASE WOULD BE IF THE RENT IS RAISED TO $500.
WHAT STRATEGY DID YOU USE TO SOLVE THIS PROBLE? EXPLAIN YOUR REASONS?
Here was my strategy: I did in my head, asking what number times 1.25 equals 500.
To find out how much Mary paid before the rent increase, we can use the strategy of working backwards.
Let's assume that the previous rent was x dollars. According to the problem, the landlord raised the rent by 25%. So, the new rent would be 1.25 times the previous rent, which can be expressed as 1.25x.
Now we are given that the new rent is $500. So, we can set up the equation 1.25x = 500.
To solve for x, we divide both sides of the equation by 1.25:
1.25x / 1.25 = 500 / 1.25
x = 400
Therefore, Mary paid $400 before the rent increase.
Now let's calculate the percent increase if the rent is raised to $500 for each answer choice:
A. $375:
Percent increase = ((500 - 375) / 375) * 100 = (125 / 375) * 100 = 33.33%
B. $400:
Percent increase = ((500 - 400) / 400) * 100 = (100 / 400) * 100 = 25%
C. $425:
Percent increase = ((500 - 425) / 425) * 100 = (75 / 425) * 100 = 17.65%
D. $475:
Percent increase = ((500 - 475) / 475) * 100 = (25 / 475) * 100 = 5.26%
Based on the calculations, the correct answer would be B. $400, which has a percent increase of 25%.
The strategy used to solve this problem was to work backwards by setting up an equation and isolating the variable for the previous rent amount. This allowed us to calculate the previous rent and then determine the percent increase for each answer choice.