An art gallery is increasing the asking price of its paintings by 60%. a painting now costs $400.00. how much was the painting before the increase? ?

The goal here is to find the cost of the painting BEFORE the 60% increase.

To find the cost of the painting, we must take in the information we already have:

Increase percent: 60%
Original price: unknown
Price after increase: $400

$400 is the price of the painting AFTER the increase has been added. So this equals the cost of the painting before the increase, plus the total amount of the increase (which is 60% of the original price).

The total must be (100% + 60% = 160%) 160% of the original painting price.

To find the original price, we must divide the increased price by the new percentage (160%). But how do we get here?

Well, we have 160% and our (fraction) $400/1%. We will have to switch the 160% and the 1%, giving us..

1% $400/160%

We take 400/160, which is 2.5. But this is only 1% of the original price! We want 100%.

So now, we multiply the 2.5 by 100 to get our $250.

I hope this helps! If you have any questions, feel free to ask.