Percentages – Increase and Decrease

How do you determine an item’s price if there is a percentage increase or decrease? In other words, what should you pay if there is a discount or if there is an increase in the price? To determine the new amount, we can make use of two methods. In the example of the price of shoes at R800 per pair being decreased by 15%, we can first work out what 15% of R800 is. So, 15% can be written as 15 divided by 100, and “of” can be written as multiplication. 15 divided by 100 multiplied by R800 is R120. Does that mean that the shoes are sold for only R120? No, it means that you should pay R120 less than R800. Thus, the new price is R680. Another, shorter method to determine this is by thinking that if I have a decrease of 15%, it means that I still need to pay 85% of the original price. So, if I work out what is 85% of R800 I will also get an answer of R680. When there is a percentage increase in a price, we can apply the same principles in the methods discussed above. Just remember, for percentage increase, the amount that you have to pay should be more than the original amount. And if the increase is 15%, then you should pay 115% of the original amount.