If the sales tax for the city of Los Angeles is 9.75%, how much tax would you pay for an item that costs $200.00?

You would pay $19.50 in taxes

We can rewrite this problem as:

What is 9.75% of $200.00

"Percent" or "%" means "out of 100" or "per 100", Therefore 9.75% can be written as ##9.75/100##.

When dealing with percents the word "of" means "times" or "to multiply".

Finally, lets call the tax amount we are looking for "t".

Putting this altogether we can write this equation and solve for ##t## while keeping the equation balanced:

##t = 9.75/100 xx $200.00##

##t = $1950.00/100##

##t = $19.50##