Dear Math Central,
I'm a student with a tough math problem that I'm having trouble with. I have a DVD player with a regular selling price of $175 and percentage of discount is 10 percent. How to solve for discount amount and sale price? Also, when you figure out the sale price how to figure out commission amount when percentage of commission is 5 percent?

Thanks,
Kim

When you see the term percent you should think "percent of what?". The regular selling price of the DVD player is $175 and hence the 10% discount is 10% of $175.

10% of $175 is

 ¹⁰/₁₀₀ $175 = $17.50

The salesperson who sells the DVD player makes a commission that is a percentage of the selling price. The selling price is $157.50 and the commision is 5% so the commission is 5% of $157.50.