You buy a television for $550. That price included a 10% sales tax. what is the price without sales tax?


The answer choices are
A)$500 B)$605
C)$55 D)$550

I did a proportion to find this answer by doing:
10/100=x/550 ;and I ended up getting $495, which is not one of the answer choices. I did an equation and ended up with $550, but I don't think that is right since that is the price of the television WITH sales tax, and your looking for a television without sales tax.
What am I doing wrong?

or, A :-)

Oh, I understand :3 Thank You Ms. Sue :)

Ooops! Of course, it's A.

i don’t understand

To calculate the price of the television without sales tax, you will need to use the inverse of the sales tax percentage. Here's how to do it:

Let's call the price without sales tax "x". We know that the price with sales tax is $550 and the sales tax rate is 10%. Since the sales tax is calculated as a percentage of the price without tax, we can set up the following equation:

x + (10% of x) = $550

To calculate 10% of x, you need to multiply x by 0.10:

0.10x = $550 - x

Now, you can simplify the equation:

1.10x = $550

Divide both sides of the equation by 1.10 to solve for "x":

x = $550 / 1.10

Let's calculate the value:

x ≈ $500

Therefore, the price without sales tax is approximately $500.

Looking at the answer choices provided, option A)$500 is the correct choice.

Let's look at this logically.

The price without tax must be less than $550.

That eliminates B and D.

C is obviously not right.

What about D?

0.1 * 500 = 50

500 + 50 = 550

Voila! The answer must be D.