What percent of the selling price in the 14.7 cents per L tax collected by the federal government?
a) 65.7 cents/L
b) 73.9 cents/L
The answers are a)15% and b) 14%, but how do i show my work?
To find the percentage of the selling price represented by a tax, follow these steps:
1. First, convert the tax rate from cents per liter to percentage per liter. For example, if the tax is 14.7 cents per liter, divide it by the selling price in cents per liter and multiply by 100 to get the percentage. Let's assume the selling price is x cents per liter.
Percentage per liter = (14.7 / x) * 100
2. Next, determine the tax as a percentage of the selling price. This can be done by dividing the tax rate by the sum of the tax rate and 100. In this case, the tax rate is 14.7 cents per liter and the selling price is x cents per liter.
Tax percentage of selling price = (14.7 / (14.7 + x)) * 100
3. Finally, substitute the given values of the selling price options into the expression to determine which answer corresponds to the calculated percentage.
Let's calculate the percentage for each option and compare it to the calculated values:
a) For option a) the selling price is 65.7 cents per liter.
Tax percentage of selling price = (14.7 / (14.7 + 65.7)) * 100 = (14.7 / 80.4) * 100 ≈ 18.28%
Since the calculated percentage is 18.28%, which is not equal to the given 15%, option a) is not correct.
b) For option b) the selling price is 73.9 cents per liter.
Tax percentage of selling price = (14.7 / (14.7 + 73.9)) * 100 = (14.7 / 88.6) * 100 ≈ 16.59%
Since the calculated percentage is 16.59%, which is not equal to the given 14%, option b) is also not correct.
Based on the calculations, neither option a) nor option b) matches the calculated tax percentage. Therefore, none of the given options is correct.