Brett bought a shirt for $12. Sales tax is 4.5%. How much did Brett pay in taxes for the shirt?

1 Answer
Apr 10, 2017

See the entire solution process below:

Explanation:

We can rewrite this problem as:

What is 4.5% of $12?

"Percent" or "%" means "out of 100" or "per 100", Therefore 4.5% can be written as #4.5/100#.

When dealing with percents the word "of" means "times" or "to multiply".

Finally, lets call the number we are looking for "n".

Putting this altogether we can write this equation and solve for #n# while keeping the equation balanced:

#n = 4.5/100 xx $12#

#n = ($54)/100#

#n = $0.54#

Tax was $0.54