(Simple) Math Help Needed - NOT HOMEWORK

Factual Questions
1

This will be really simple to most of you, but I’m clueless.

I received a payout check from some presale tickets on a show I promoted a while back. The presale manager already took their percentage out, but didn’t give me the original sum before she took the percentage. She is unavailable to tell me what the original amount was.
The amount I received was $342. She took 5% off the top.

I’m pretty sure that to figure it out, I use the equation:

X - .05x = 342
But I have no recollection of how to solve this, and I sucked at math in school anyway. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

2

If I understand the problem correctly it would be:

342 = 0.95x

Therefore x = 342/0.95 which is $360

3

X - .05x = 342
Gather the “like terms”

X- 0.5X = (1 * X) - (0.5 * X)

then by distribution

(1 - 0.5) * X

= 0.95 X
Therefore, 0.95 X = 342

Divide each side by 0.95:

0.95/0.95 X = 342/0.95

= 1 X = 360

Therefore X = 360

4

Remember too that the variable “X” really stands for “1X”.

1X-.05X = .95X should be pretty clear then.

5

:smack:
thank you all.

6

Don’t feel bad. You’re way ahead of a lot of people who would have just added on 5% of the $342.

7

Another way to solve the problem, without explicit equations:
If she took 5%, then you got the remaining 95%. So, 95% of what = $342?