Question

What is the cost of a $36.00 sweater at 7% sales tax?

Answer 1

The total cost will be $38.52.

Explanation:

"7% sales tax" tells us that 7% of the cost of the item will be added on.

So the tax will be 7% of $36 (Remember that `7%=7/100=0.07`)

"7% of 36" `= 0.07 xx $36 = $2.52`

$2.52 will be added to $36.00 to give the total cost

`$2.52 + $36.00 = $38.52`

The final cost will be $38.52

In a more general case, the following equation can be written to find the total cost:

`"cost" + (% "tax" xx "cost") = "total cost"`

or

`"cost" + (0.07 xx "cost") = "total cost"`

which can be simplified to

`(1 + 0.07) xx "cost" = "total cost"`

or

`1.07 xx "cost" = "total cost"` where any tax % can be substituted in for the 0.07