Given: Merrill received a $21 tip on a meal that cost $144
To Determine: What percent of the meal cost was the tip?
Let the percentage tip be x. Then
[tex]\begin{gathered} x\%of\text{ the meal cost= tip} \\ \text{meal cost=\$144} \\ \text{tip}=\text{ \$21} \end{gathered}[/tex]x is calculated as shown below:
[tex]\begin{gathered} \frac{x}{100}\times144=21 \\ \frac{144x}{100}=21 \\ 1.44x=21 \\ x=\frac{21}{1.44} \\ x=14.58 \\ x\approx15 \end{gathered}[/tex]Hence, the percentage tip to nearest percent is 15
