Expert: Paul Klarreich - 9/1/2009

Question
Hello. I'm not even sure what kind of problem this is, but it was on my SAT prep. This is the question:

Solve.

Carl had a ticket to a concert but realized he couldn't go. So he sold the ticket to Maria for $10. But then he realized this was a 16 2/3 loss for him. What was the original price of the ticket?

I don't even know how to approach this. I understand what the question is asking, but how do I go about this?

Answer
Questioner: kellly
Country: United States
Category: Advanced Math
Private: No
Subject: Math problem I can't solve
Question: Hello. I'm not even sure what kind of problem this is, but it was on my SAT prep. This is the question:

Solve.

Carl had a ticket to a concert but realized he couldn't go. So he sold the ticket to Maria for $10. But then he realized this was a 16 2/3 loss for him. What was the original price of the ticket?

I don't even know how to approach this. I understand what the question is asking, but how do I go about this?
...................................
But then he realized this was a 16 2/3 loss for him ---

16 2/3 whats?  Dollars? Cents?  

OH!!!  Percents, I suppose.

Let  P = original price.
Then 16 2/3 percent is 1/6 (your 5th grade teacher made you memorize that).

So  (1/6)P is the loss.

The selling price is  P - loss.
The selling price is  P - (1/6)P
The selling price is  (5/6)P
The selling price WAS  10.

You can take it from there.

Also, please note:  Advanced math is trig and precalc.  Send these to the Basic Algebra section.