The market bought grapes for $0.87 a pound and sold them for $1.09 a pound. What is the percent of increase rounded to the nearest tenth?

1 Answer
Oct 27, 2016

Unless told otherwise the increase will be compared to the original value. So we are comparing to $0.87

Increase is the change which is #$1.09-$0.87 = $0.22#

So expressed as a fraction the change is #($0.22)/($0.87)#

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#color(blue)("Using the shortcut method")#

The percentage change is: #(0.22-:0.87)xx100= 25.28735...%#

Rounded to the nearest tenth #25.3%# to 1 decimal place

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#color(blue)("Using first principle method")#

A percentage in fraction form is #("some number")/100#

So we need to change #($0.22)/($0.87)# such that the bottom number (denominator) is 100.

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So we need to manipulate $0.87 this way:
#0.87xx100/0.87# is the same as #" "0.87/0.87xx100" " =" 2 1xx100#

To maintain the correct ratio what we do to the bottom we also do to the top.
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Multiply top and bottom by #100/0.87# giving:

#(0.22xx100/0.87)/(0.87xx100/0.87) larr"the top is the same as the shortcut"#

giving

#" "(25.28735...)/100# which is the same as 25.3% to 1 decimal place.
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#color(purple)("Footnote")#

#color(purple)("Did you know that "%" is really a unit of measurement")#

In the same way that centimetre is the unit size of #" "(1" metre")/100#

#% # is the unit size of #1/100# of something.

So for example #60% -> 60/100# of something