ezinis wrote:
For me, the key to solve this problem is to know which amount to subtract from. Its easy to calculate the two amount of 41000 and 40000 but if you subtract 40000 from 41000 then you will have a profit of 1000 and vice-versa.
My question is what determines which one is the reference point???
Thanks guys.
A used car dealer sold one car at a profit of 25 percent of the dealers purchase price for that car and sold another car at a loss of 20 percent of the dealers purchase price for that car. If the dealer sold each car for $20,000 , what was the dealers total profit or loss, in dollars, for the two transactions combined?a) 1000 profit
b) 2000 profit
c) 1000 loss
d) 2000 loss
e) 3334 loss
A dealer sold one car
at a profit of 25% of the dealers purchase price for that car, let's say \(p_1\), for $20,000 --> \(p_1*1.25=20,000\) --> \(p_1=16,000\) --> \(profit=selling \ price-purchase \ price=20,000-16,000=4,000\);
A dealer sold another car
at a loss of 20% of the dealers purchase price for that car, let's say \(p_2\), again for $20,000 --> \(p_2*0.8=20,000\) --> \(p_2=25,000\) --> \(loss=purchase \ price-selling \ price=25,000-20,000=5,000\);
Overall loss 5,000-4,000=1,000.
Or the way you are doing: the cars were purchased for \(p_1+p_2=16,000+25,000=41,000\), and sold for \(20,000+20,000=40,000\) so the overall loss is \(41,000-40,000=1,000\).
Answer: C.
Hope it's clear.
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