Question 4 the day : April 1, 2002
The question for the day is a sample practice problem in profit, loss,
discounts, an Arithmetic Topic and the problem provides an understanding of
the different terms such as Cost Price, List Price, Selling price and
margins.
Question
A trader makes a profit equal to the selling price of 75 articles when he
sold 100 of the articles. What % profit did he make in the transaction?
- 33.33%
- 75%
- 300%
- 150%
Correct Answer -
300% profit. Choice (3)
Explanatory Answer
Let S be the selling price of 1 article.
Therefore, the selling price of 100 articles = 100 S. --(1)
The profit earned by selling these 100 articles = selling price of 75
articles = 75 S -- (2)
We know that Selling Price (S.P.) = Cost Price (C.P) + Profit -- (3)
Selling price of 100 articles = 100 S and Profit = 75 S from (1) and (2).
Substituting this in eqn (3), we get]
100 S = C.P + 75 S. Hence, C.P = 100 S - 75 S = 25 S.
Profit % = (Profit/Cost.Price )*100 =( 755/255)*100=300%
Typically, you should take about 25 to 30 seconds to crack a problem of this
kind. In reality, you should not be writing down all the steps that I have
used to explain the solution. You should probably be framing equation (3)
directly and compute the last step. The rest of the steps should be done
mentally as you read the question for the first time.
