<p>The price of a car is reduced by 30 percent. The resulting price is reduced 40 percent. The two reductions are equal to one reduction of</p>
<p>answer is 58%, but I always get 42%. Please help!</p>
<p>Don’t work with the percent of the reductions; work with the remaining prices.</p>
<p>First the price of the car is X. After the first reduction, it is 0.7(X). After the second reduction, it is 0.6[0.7(X)], or 0.42(X). If the final price of the car is 42% of the original price, then the original price has been discounted by 58%.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your reply. But how do you get this: "If the final price of the car is 42% of the original price, then the original price has been discounted by 58%. "? Thanks again.</p>
<p>The 42% you’re getting is how much of the original price the reduced price is. If you’re paying 42% of the original price, that’s equivalent to a 58% discount. Because 42 + 58 = 100. :)</p>
<p>Well, the original price is 100% of the original price.</p>
<p>The final price is 42% of the original price.</p>
<p>That means (100-42)%, or 58%, of the original price has been taken off.</p>
<p>I am so bad at math, and I really need to become mentally flexible. Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>Here’s a really basic way to look at it:
Set the car cost to $100 (Setting a price to $100 is a very effective strategy, whether it be realistic or not)
Now when you reduce the price of the car by 30%, you’re subtracting $30 from the original price, which gives you a price of $70.
Now you want to subtract off 40% from the $70, which gives you $42.</p>
<p>Now, if the final price of the car is $42, this means that you got $58 off the original price, and since the original price was $100, the answer is simply 58%.</p>