November 27, 2015

Black Friday Math

I couldn’t resist summiting you this basic math problem on crazy Black Friday:

Offering an insane sale, a store is giving you an additional 50% rebate on an item already marked 40% down. What total discount percentage are you actually getting?

Some may promptly answer 90%...

…the correct result is 70%. 
Long boring explanation:

Original Price = 100%
First Rebate Price = Original Price – First Rebate x Original Price
       First Rebate Price = 100 % - 40 % x 100% = 60%
Second Rebate Price = First Rebate Price – Additional Rebate x First Rebate Price
      Second Rebate Price = 60% - 50% x 60% = 60% - 30% = 30%
Total Discount = Original Price - Second Rebate Price
      Total Discount = 100% - 30% = 70% off

My quick mental calculation trick:

6 x 5 = 30% => Total Discount Price => 70% Discount

Mental calculation explanation:

Total Discount Price = (100%-40%) x (100%-50%) = 60% x 50%
Total Discount Price = (10 - 4) x (10 – 5) % = (6 x 5)% = 30% => 70% off

Some more examples:

30% rebate over a 30% rebate = 7 x 7 = 49% =>51% off
60% rebate over a 40% rebate = 4 x 6 = 24% =>76% off
10% rebate over a 20% rebate = 9 x 8 = 72% =>28% off

And so on…

One final example:

3 combined rebates of 10% 40% 50% = 9 x 6 x 5 = 9 x 3 = 27% =>73% off

I admit I cheated a bit on this last tricky one so the numbers would round up but the math still works.
Hope you can have fun juggling with amazing Black Friday discounts of your own!

That’s all from me today.

Happy holiday season to all!

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