Percent of Change

A little blurb about gambling has recently caught my eye in Newsweek. It says that gambling revenues dropped $1.78 billion this year, which is a 2.6% dip.

Your job:
1. Figure out how much the revenues were last year (original)
2. Figure out how much they are this year, after the 2.6% drop. (new)
Hint: Use the formula for percent of change. Remember that the original is 100%.

Traveling In Canada Part 2

After spending a week with our friends, it was time to head back to the US. Before we left, we had to get some gas for the car. We picked the best price in town, and filled up the tank.

The best price we found was 98.6¢ for one liter. That is in Canadian dollars (or cents to be exact). After we crossed the border and got lost for a while due to inaccurate directions, it was time to fill up the tank again, in the state of New York. The best price we could find was $3.37 for a gallon. That is US dollars.

Your job is to figure out whether gas was cheaper in Canada or in the US?
Here is some additional information to help you:
$1.00 CAN = $ .80 US
1 gallon = 3.8 liters

Traveling in Canada Part 1

During our stay in Pennsylvania we also took a trip up North to visit some friends of ours in Cobourg, Canada. Cobourg is a small town on the North shore of Lake Ontario. You can click the map on the left to get a better view of its location.

We arrived in Canada at a very exciting time, first because it was the eve of Canadian Thanksgiving, second becasue it was a few days before their election day.

The results of the election are the topic of this problem. According to the official results, the Conservative Party won with about 38% of the votes. From another website I learned that there are 23,401,064 registered voters in Canada, and about 59% of them actually voted in this election.
Your job:

1. Figure out how many people actually voted for the winning party.
   
2. Find out what percentage of registered voters voted for the winning party.
   Hint for #2: take your answer from #1, and the total number of registered voters, make it into a fraction, then turn the fraction into a percent
   

Submitted by Francisco

My dad's computer credit card problem

My dad got me and my sister a Widows Vista because our old one had a virus. The virus deleted all the memory & documents. It ruined the screen, printer, mouse, and keyboard. We bought Windows Vista, and it had everything except the printer. Vista came at a price of $799.99 without taxes. The printer was $149.99 without the taxes.

Your job is to:
1. find out the taxes (8.25% of the total price) and
2. figure out how much money my dad has to pay per month so he can finish paying in 18 months.

Submitted by Jasmine

The Shoe Problem

Yesterday I received $100, and decided to go buy shoes. At the the store I saw every pair cost $40 but not just that, each pair was discounted 50%. If each were 50% off, how many pairs can I get? Could I get more than two?