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Expert: Josh - 2/9/2011


Question
John is a salesman and he earns 16.5% of his sales. If John earned $54.45 last month, what was the total of his sales?

Answer
Hi Dorothy,

First, let the unknown (in this case, the total of his sales) be X.

The amount he earned (A) is given by total sales (X) multiplied by his commission (R).
We were told that A=54.45 and R=0.165 (i.e., 16.5/100 when a percentage is converted to decimal).

So, we have A = X*R. Our goal is to find X (the total of his sales).
Dividing both sides of the equation by R, we get X=A/R ....[#1]
The answer is obtained by substituting A=54.45 and R=0.165 into the expression in [#1].

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Josh

Expertise

When I work through problems, I like to emphasize concepts which I believe are worth noting. I will try to answer questions in the following areas, but not at the advanced level. Algebra. Sequences & Series. Trigonometry. Functions & Graphs. Coordinate Geometry. Quadratic Polynomials. Exponential & Logarithms. Basic Calculus. Probability, Permutation and Combination. Mathematical Induction. Complex numbers. Physics problems.

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I have worked as a teaching assistant in college. My hope is that more people will share knowledge without boundary, give help without seeking recognition or monetary rewards.

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Bachelor degree in Engineering Science

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