Final answer:
To determine the new price of a $55.50 meal with a 15% discount, convert 15% to a decimal (0.15), multiply by the meal's cost to get the discount amount ($8.33 after rounding), and subtract it from the original price to find the new price ($47.17).
Step-by-step explanation:
Let's choose an amount of $55.50 to represent the cost of the meal for a family. To calculate the new price with a 15%-off coupon, we first need to convert the percentage discount to a decimal. We do this by dividing 15 by 100, which gives us 0.15. Next, we multiply the original cost of the meal by 0.15 to find out the discount amount: $55.50 × 0.15 = $8.325. To make this work with currency, we can round to the nearest cent, resulting in $8.33. We subtract this discount from the original price to find the new price: $55.50 - $8.33 = $47.17.
To calculate the discounted price after applying the coupon, we use basic percentage calculation methods. Turning the percentage into a decimal makes it easier to perform calculations on dollar amounts, as it converts the percentage into a proportion of 1. After determining the discount by multiplying the decimal by the original price, we get the amount that will be subtracted from the original price. It's important to ensure the result makes sense in terms of currency, which usually means rounding to the nearest cent.
Finally, subtracting the discount from the original price gives us the total cost of the meal after the coupon has been applied. Through this method, we can realize the impact of discounts on everyday purchases and better manage a budget.