How is the final price of a reference book calculated if it is initially sold for 20% less than the wholesale price of $50, followed by a 15% additional reduction?

The final price of the reference book is calculated by applying two successive reductions to the wholesale price of $50. Initially, the book is being sold at 20% less than the wholesale price. To determine this first step, we calculate 20% of $50, which is $10, leading to a reduced price of $50 - $10 = $40.

Next, we need to apply a further reduction of 15% to this adjusted price. Instead of manually calculating the decrease from the new amount after the first reduction, we can express this mathematically as multiplying the initial price by each of the percentage adjustments as decimals.

The first adjustment (20% off) means the buyer pays 80% of the original price, so we have $50 x 0.80. The subsequent 15% reduction means the buyer pays 85% of the already reduced price, which translates the calculation to $50 x 0.80 x 0.85.

This method efficiently reflects both discounts in a single expression, confirming that the final price is derived from the successive application of the percentage discounts rather than trying to work backwards by subtraction of the discounts from the original price. This systematic approach illustrates how compound discounts impact the overall