A maths question!

[DucksInARowingBoat]

If something costs £572 and inflation is 4.2% what will it cost next year?

I have my answer but I want to see what you come up with as it keeps telling me Im wrong.

Just to add, the instructions say to work out the result you should multiply the current price by the percentage increase. However I work that out to be 320% increase.

Yes, assume rather than know.

The world is full of people making assumptions.

Many of which turn out to be incorrect.

Well yes but it's a basic course and in the absence of any other information either in the question or anywhere else, it is reasonable to make that assumption.

OP you keep saying 4.2% of £572 is 4.2 x £572 - it isn’t. Look at the symbol for the percent sign, and the word ‘percent’ - it means out of 100 - per cent, or /100. You can see over the years how ‘/100’ morphed into %.

So you should understand it as 4.2/100 x £572.

4.2 is the change you can use x 4.2/100 to get the increase in price and then add to the original, just as valid.

No.

Just because it's a basic course doesn't mean it has to be incorrect, ill specified or ambiguously worded.

This question doesn't prepare anyone for the real world at all.

Yes. That is exactly what I did.

I got the right answer.

Did you include the 2p? It's 596.02.

Multiplying by 1.042 is the same as multiplying by 0.042 and adding it on to the initial amount.

100% of something is found by multiplying by 1. 4.2% is found by multiplying by 0.042.

Yep. I tried
£596.02
£596.00
£596
596.02
596.00
596
£596.02p
£596.00p
(I know £ and p is incorrect btw!)

I also tried those variations with £24 (or whatever the difference was) in case the question wording meant that.

I got £596.02

£572/100 = £5.72
£5.73 x 4.2 = £596.02

I think its £596.03

Bet they round up not down, dont want to lose money!
Or try 596.024

I wonder if this has been written by the same person who wrote the question that was subject of several very long threads a few months ago where none of the multiple choice options were correct.

At least this time no-one (so far ) has come up with their own explanation as to how one of the wrong answers is correct.

Is the answer 603.34

edited 04 to 34

The question gives 2 decimal places. So your answer should give 2 decimal places. The answer is £596.02

I would try £596.03 - you can't have 0.4 Of a penny in real life, so perhaps they rounded up?

This is a good suggestion

But multiplying something by 4.2 isn’t the same thing as multiplying it by 4.2%!
You’re multiplying it by 4.2 to get that figure. You’ve done the wrong sum.

But mathematically incorrect. You could just as well say they'd charge £595.99, £596 exactly or think, sod it, whack it up to £599, £599.99 or an even £600.

I don't think rounding up to the closest penny is the same as rounding it to a random close amount. You can't actually have half a penny, and businesses aren't likely to round down and do themselves out of money.
I agree its not mathematically correct, but the correct answer is showing as incorrect.