To order certain plants from a catalog, it costs $3.00 per plant......

Question

To order certain plants from a catalog, it costs $3.00 per plant, plus a 5 percent sales tax, plus $6.95 for shipping and handling regardless of the number of plants ordered. If Company C ordered these plants from the catalog at the total cost of $69.95, how many plants did Company C order?
 
A. 22
B. 21
C. 20
D. 19
E. 18

chetan2u · Accepted Answer

You do not have to do any calculations if you understand the propertiies of number thrown by Q...

A constant amount is 6.95 and Toatl is 69.95...
so variable price dependent on # of plants = 69.95-6.95 = 63...

where as cost of ONE plant is NON_INTEGER 3+ 5% of 3, total is an integer.....
so # of plants has to be multiple of 10 to give an integer..
ONLY 20 is possible
C...

METHOD...
cost of ONE plant = 3 + 3*0.05 = 3.15... 
let the # of plants be p..
so  3.15p+6.95=69.95................ 3.15p=63......................p= \frac{63}{3.15} = \frac{6300}{315}= 20 
C

Abhishek009 · Answer

Total Cost = Fixed Cost + Variable Cost/unit x No of Units bought

Fixed Cost here is $6.95

Variable Cost/unit = 3.15 ( 3.00 + 5% of 3.00)

69.95 = 6.95 + 3.15 ( No of Units bought )

Or, 63 = 3.15 ( No of Units bought )

So, ( No of Units bought ) =  \frac{63}{3.15}

Or, ( No of Units bought ) = 20
  
Answer will be (C) , hope that helps !!

Salsanousi · Answer

One of the questions that can be solved using back-solving

Pick answer choice C to be the number of plants.

20*3 = 60

60 * 5/100 = 3

60 + 3 + 6.95 = 69.95

MHIKER · Answer

69.95 = 3x+0.05*3x+6.95
x = 20
Ans. C

MathRevolution · Answer

Let 'n' number of plants were ordered.

Total cost of plants: n * 3 = 3n

Sales tax: 5% of 3n =  \frac{5}{100}  * 3n =  \frac{3n}{ 20}

Shipping: 6.95

Overall bill: 69.95

=> 3n +  \frac{3n }{ 20}  + 6.95 = 69.95

=> 3n +  \frac{3n}{20}  = 63

=>  \frac{63n }{20}  = 63

=> n = 20

Answer C

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Solution:
 
Let p = the number of plants the company ordered. Thus, the cost of the plants only will be 3p. We multiply by 1.05 to include the sales tax in our calculation. The value 6.95 is a flat fee that is not taxed. Thus, we can create the equation:

3p * 1.05 + 6.95 = 69.96

3p * 1.05 = 63

3p = 60

p = 20

Answer: C

Basshead · Answer

To order certain plants from a catalog, it costs $3.00 per plant, plus a 5 percent sales tax, plus $6.95 for shipping and handling regardless of the number of plants ordered. If Company C ordered these plants from the catalog at the total cost of $69.95, how many plants did Company C order?

My approach:

Subtract the shipping: $69.95 - $6.95 = $63

Plant after tax = $3.15

10 plants after tax = $31.50
20 plants after tax = $63

Answer is C.

My approach:

Subtract the shipping: $69.95 - $6.95 = $63

Plant after tax = $3.15

10 plants after tax = $31.50
20 plants after tax = $63

Answer is C.

msali1983 · Answer

Note = 1.05 is equivalent to 21/20

Putting things in fraction is easier for direct multiplication problems.

ThatDudeKnows · Answer

As soon as you want to start setting up an equation with a variable even though there's no variable in the question, that's a sign to use PITA (Plugging in the Answers).

11% of the PS questions in the 2022 OG Quant book can be solved using PITA, making it the second-most useful test-taking technique.

Out of answer choices B, C, and D, which looks easiest to work with (with rare exception, start with B, C, or D since they typically give more information than A and E)?

I'll go with C.

Okay, so there are 20 plants at $3 each. That's $60. We need to add tax. 10% would be $6, and we want 5%, so $3. Now we need to add shipping. That's $6.95. So, $60 for the plants + $3 for tax + $6.95 for shipping. That's $69.95. Is that what we wanted? Sure is. Done.

Answer choice C.

ThatDudeKnowsPITA

ynan456 · Answer

but how are we sure sales tax is calculated as tax per unit or if it is calculated on the overall amount, is 63 in our case

ThatDudeKnows · Answer

The $63 is the amount already including tax. 20 plants at $3 per plant is $60 before tax. We need to add 5% tax to that, and 5% of $60 is $3, so that's where the $63 comes from.

You could have calculated tax per item and then added them up. That works, too. For each $3 plant, you'd have needed to add $0.15 for tax ($0.15 is 5% of $3). That makes each plant $3.15 including tax, so 20 of them cost $63.

MBAHOUSE · Answer

Let's denote the number of plants Company C ordered as "x".

The total cost for the plants can be calculated as follows:
Cost of plants = Number of plants * Cost per plant = x * $3.00

Sales tax is 5% of the cost of plants:
Sales tax = 0.05 * Cost of plants = 0.05 * (x * $3.00)

Shipping and handling cost is a flat fee of $6.95.

So, the total cost for Company C can be calculated as:
Total cost = Cost of plants + Sales tax + Shipping cost
Total cost = x * $3.00 + 0.05 * (x * $3.00) + $6.95

Given that the total cost is $69.95, we can set up the equation:
$x * 3.00 + 0.05 * (x * 3.00) + 6.95 = 69.95$

Simplify the equation:
$3.00x + 0.15x + 6.95 = 69.95$

Combine the x terms and solve for x:
$3.15x + 6.95 = 69.95$
$3.15x = 63.00$
$x = 63.00 / 3.15$
$x = 20$

So, Company C ordered 20 plants.

Sa800 · Answer

I thought you had to apply tax rate at the end??? People here are multiplying the 5% tax to individual 3 dollars…and then multiplying by the number of flowers bought…. That’s allowed???

PranavVyas · Answer

total cost = $69.95 ~ $70.00  (Rounding off) 
70*5%=$3.5 => 70-3.5 =67.5  (5 percent sales tax) 
67.5-6.95=60.65  (5 for shipping and handling) 
60.65/$3= 20.21  (per plant cost)

OA=20

Iashish.sharma · Answer

69.95-6.95=63

3*21/20*x=63

X=63*20/3*21

X=20

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To order certain plants from a catalog, it costs $3.00 per plant......

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