Pablo bought a basketball. The price after a 7.5% tax was $34.40. What was the price before t

$2.58

Step-by-step explanation:

7.5/100

__/34.40

This might seem confusing but basically you put a percent over 100.

That's how you would solve something like this

we have three similar triangles, because each has a right angle and shares an angle.   let's write the angles in order: opposite to short leg, long leg, hypotenuse.

cab similar to bad similar to cbd

or as ratios,

ca: ab: cb = ba: ad: bd = cb: bd: cd

we also know

ac = ad + cd

(ad+cd): ab: cb = ba: ad: bd = cb: bd: cd

(ad+cd)/cb=cb/cd

we have cb=6, ad=5 and seek x=cd.

we reject the negative root and conclude x=4

answer: 4

if you was gonna solve for a, a is a   < -12