Benchmark Percentage discounts
Percentages are all around us, and as mentioned previously, especially if you love to shop like me! Sometimes businesses want to attract customers by lowering the price and giving a discount, which is usually expressed in percentages.
To find out how much the discount actually is, it's as easy as repeating our process of multiplication shown in Using Percentages. The hardest part is interpreting the word problems and what they mean mathematically.
Example
Lisa wants to buy a new phone for $\$360$$360, and was delighted to find out that she gets a $50%$50% discount.
Calculate the value of the discount.
Think about which numbers are the ones you need, and the meaning of 'value'.
Do: Value means how much the discount actually is in terms of money. That means we need the numbers $\$360$$360 and $50%$50%.
| $360\times50%$360×50% | $=$= | $360\times\frac{50}{100}$360×50100 |
| $=$= | $360\times\frac{1}{2}$360×12 | |
| $=$= | $\frac{360}{2}$3602 | |
| $=$= | $180$180 |
Therefore the discount is $\$180$$180.
Remember to always attach the correct unit to your final answer, whether they're dollars, pounds or in other questions maybe even kilograms or meters.
Worked Examples
QUESTION 1
Steph is going to buy a hat that is marked as $25%$25% off. The original price was $\$36$$36.
What is the value of the discount in dollars?
What is the price that Steph will pay for the hat?
QUESTION 2
The full price is $\$300$$300. Yvonne receives a discount of $55%$55%.
How much would a $10%$10% discount be?
How much would a $5%$5% discount be?
Hence find the discount that Yvonne receives.