Jonathan earns a base salary of $1500 plus 10% of his sales each month. Raymond earns $1200 plus 15%

Discussion in 'Calculator Requests' started by math_celebrity, Oct 18, 2021.

  1. math_celebrity

    math_celebrity Administrator Staff Member

    Jonathan earns a base salary of $1500 plus 10% of his sales each month. Raymond earns $1200 plus 15% of his sales each month. How much will Jonathan and Raymond have to sell in order to earn the same amount each month?

    Step 1: Set up Jonathan's sales equation S(m) where m is the amount of sales made each month:
    S(m) = Commission percentage * m + Base Salary

    10% written as a decimal is 0.1. We want decimals to solve equations easier.
    S(m) = 0.1m + 1500

    Step 2: Set up Raymond's sales equation S(m) where m is the amount of sales made each month:
    S(m) = Commission percentage * m + Base Salary

    15% written as a decimal is 0.15. We want decimals to solve equations easier.
    S(m) = 0.15m + 1200

    The question asks what is m when both S(m)'s equal each other:
    The phrase earn the same amount means we set Jonathan's and Raymond's sales equations equal to each other
    0.1m + 1500 = 0.15m + 1200

    We want to isolate m terms on one side of the equation.

    Subtract 1200 from each side:
    0.1m + 1500 - 1200 = 0.15m + 1200 - 1200

    Cancel the 1200's on the right side and we get:
    0.1m - 300 = 0.15m

    Next, we subtract 0.1m from each side of the equation to isolate m
    0.1m - 0.1m + 300 = 0.15m - 0.1m

    Cancel the 0.1m terms on the left side and we get:
    300 = 0.05m

    Flip the statement since it's an equal sign to get the variable on the left side:
    0.05m = 300

    To solve for m, we divide each side of the equation by 0.05:
    0.05m/0.05 = 300/0.05

    Cancelling the 0.05 on the left side, we get:
    m = 6000
     

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