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Today Puzzle #584

Puzzle No. 584 – Tuesday 8 October

Shops A and B sell the same suit at the same price. Shop A drops the price of the suit by £18; Shop B drops it by 18%. The next week, shop A drops their price by a further 21% and Shop B drops theirs by a further £21. The prices are now the same again. What was the original price?

Today’s #PuzzleForToday has been set by the maths education charity MEI, which this week has launched its annual ‘Ritangle’ competition for teams of A level Maths students.

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£226.

Let the starting price be £a. Then (a-18) x 79/100 = (a x 82/100)-18. Solving this gives a=226, so the answer is £226.

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