High School Math Question

[Texan]

I just came across my wife's uncle's high school math book from 1936. Her uncle died in WW2 and never had kids. Since my mother in law is his only living sibling, she has his military awards and personal effects. I went towards the back of the book and found a random math question. My 17 year old couldn't solve the problem and I think that it's because he has never applied his math to practical uses. I had no problem with it, but most kids now wouldn't have a clue to solving this. My son can now solve this after I explained to him how. Much of the language isn't in their vocabulary. I had to explain wholesale(cost) and retail(list) to him. I have pages and pages of similar questions. Here is the question.


What per cent above cost must a merchant mark goods, so as to be able to make a discount of 18% from the list price, and still realize a profit of 23%?

I'm sure the smarter kids would have no problem with this, but you don't see real world problems in today's textbooks and I think that is to our detriment. Many of the questions deal with commissions, interest, and storage fees to calculate how much money is changed hands. Kids just seem to crunch numbers now and don't know how to apply them to life or take a real life situation and set up the necessary equation to get the desired result. Is this a typical high school math word problem in Australia?

[Redneck]

50% ????

[Texan]

50% ????

Pretty close. I wasn't necessarily looking for the answer. Unless I'm wrong, I calculated 45.14%.

Is this a typical high school math word problem or is education changed all over the world? Some of this is cultural. In 1936, there were less social safety nets. People were expected to be more independent because employment practices and payroll weren't automated and computerized as they are now. In the real world now, there are all kinds of specialized taxes, deductions from payroll for insurance, and who knows what else to make it impossible for the average person to be able to run a business without software and computers.

[Texan]

I also came across my wife's grandfather's expense log book for 1946. He was a farmer and had all kinds of expenses listed for seed, tools, cattle, ......... Everything was dated and neatly itemized. He was typically paid once per year when he sold his crops, so he had to watch every penny to make sure it lasted until the next year. I never met him, as he died a few months before I met my wife in 1990, but I saw a side of him in his expense book that I had never considered.

[Redneck]

50% ????

Pretty close. I wasn't necessarily looking for the answer. Unless I'm wrong, I calculated 45.14%.

Is this a typical high school math word problem or is education changed all over the world? Some of this is cultural. In 1936, there were less social safety nets. People were expected to be more independent because employment practices and payroll weren't automated and computerized as they are now. In the real world now, there are all kinds of specialized taxes, deductions from payroll for insurance, and who knows what else to make it impossible for the average person to be able to run a business without software and computers.

My thinking was this

Lets say the initial cost of the goods was $100

I then mark it up to $150 list price (Mark up 50%)

I then discount 18% of the list price (18/100*150) = $27

150-27 = 123

$123 = profit of 23% over initial cost of $100

So the answer would be mark up 50%

[Texan]

I took the original $100 and multiplied it by 123% to get the $123 sale price. I multiplied that by 118% to get $145.14.

I think I may have goofed, as adding 18% of to $123 is different from taking away 18% of the original retail cost. Your answer of 50% is exactly right.

[Redneck]

I also came across my wife's grandfather's expense log book for 1946. He was a farmer and had all kinds of expenses listed for seed, tools, cattle, ......... Everything was dated and neatly itemized. He was typically paid once per year when he sold his crops, so he had to watch every penny to make sure it lasted until the next year. I never met him, as he died a few months before I met my wife in 1990, but I saw a side of him in his expense book that I had never considered.

I have never ran a business myself but yes we are spoiled these days with computer programs to do a lot of the hard work, possibly even provide expected profits over the year, I know businesses have to submit quarterly Business Activity Statements of their tax due etc so its certainly more complicated than stuffing your receipts in a cake tin until the end of the financial year .

Although I have heard of some tradies taking a pile of receipts into a person who manages their books for them. I remember meeting a girl in our motorcycle club that after leaving work, did a course on book keeping then purchased a good software program and did books for tradies and farmers etc in the little town she lived in.

[Redneck]

I took the original $100 and multiplied it by 123% to get the $123 sale price. I multiplied that by 118% to get $145.14.

I think I may have goofed, as adding 18% of to $123 is different from taking away 18% of the original retail cost. Your answer of 50% is exactly right.

Yeah I tried working that way initially but kept thinking there was something wrong, so I decided to work backwards from what number when discounted by 18% came up with $123 based on $100 initial cost.

Anyway all good, keeps our brains active.

[sprintcyclist]

50% ????

I agree

[Neferti]

Kids these days don't even learn their "times tables".

As a kid, one of our favourite "games", on a cold Winter's night in front of the open fire, was to ask Dad to give the answer to a bunch of numbers that we yelled out. We would write down the numbers, added them up, get the answer then call out the numbers to Dad. For example: 234, 382, 560, 801, and so forth and at the end of, say about 12 numbers, he would have the answer, spot on! We tried and tried to stump him. LOL He died in 1971, cancer. I still miss him.