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| Math Central | Quandaries & Queries |
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Question from Tiffany, a student: Khairul wants to buy a sofa set. He is offered 3 successive discounts of 10%,20% and 25%, and he can arrange them in any order he wants. Which order will benefit him the most? Explain your answer. |
Hi Tiffany,
Suppose the price of the sofa before any discounts is $\$p.$ I am going to apply the discounts in the order you have in your question.
The first discount is 10% so the price after the first discount is 90% of the original price, that is $0.90 \times \$p.$ The second discount is 20% of the first discounted price so the price after the second discount is 80% of the first discounted price, that is $0.80 \times 0.90 \times \$p.$ What is the price after the third discount of 25%?
There are 6 different orders to apply the discounts. Choose another and see the final price after the three discounts. How does it compare to the final price in the order I chose?
Penny
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