Question

After a price reduction of 20%, the sale price of an item is $16. A student says, "So, the original price must have been 120% of the sale price."

Is this statement correct?
Justify your answer.

Answer 1

For this case we can make the following rule of three:
80% -------> 16 $
100% -----> x
Clearing the value of x we have:
x = (100/80) * (16)
x = 20 $
We will compare this result with 120% of the sale price.
We have then:
(1.20) * (16) = 19.2 $
Answer:
The statement is not correct. The original price is:
x = 20 $