ACT Math : Profit Margin
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Example Questions
Example Question #1301 : Act Math
Patrice earns $75 per day. Ron earns $350 per week. How many days does Patrice have to work to earn more than what Ron earns in 5 weeks?
25
20
23
24
24
Find out how much Ron earns in 5 weeks ($1750). Divide by Patrice’s daily wage (23.3333 days). Patrice needs to work at least 24 days. At 23 days, she will only have earned $1725, falling $25 short of Ron’s 5 week earnings.
Example Question #232 : Arithmetic
A business launches a new product that produces $x in sales its first year. Sales in the second year are double the first, and the third year has sales four times as large as the first year. If 2nd year sales were $12 million, how much in total sales was produced over the 3 year period?
$48 million
$42 million
$40 million
$36 million
$42 million
Write out an equation. Total sales = T = x +2x + 4x
If 2x = 12, x = 6
T = 6 + 12 + 24 = $42 million
Example Question #1 : How To Find Amount Of Profit
A jewelry designer bought a booth at a local craft fair. She paid $160 for the booth rental for the day. Her necklaces cost $10 to make and she sells them for $50 apiece. If she wants to make at least $1000 profit for the day, how many necklaces must she sell?
18
24
29
20
22
29
Profit on Necklace = Price – Cost = $50 – $10 = $40
Total Profit = # of Necklaces Sold * $40 – Booth Rental Rate
$1000 Profit = # of Necklaces * $40 – $160
$1160 = # of Necklaces * $40
# Necklaces = 29
Example Question #2 : Profit Margin
A law firm earned $2,000,000 this year in fees. If the firm’s annual operating costs are $1,250,000, what is their profit this year?
$1,250,000
$2,000,000
$750,000
$1,000,000
$250,000
$750,000
Profit = Total Fees – Operating Costs = $2,000,000 – $1,250,000 = $750,000
Example Question #1312 : Act Math
Max bought a book for $10. If he later sold the book at a 25% profit. How much money in total did he receive from the sale of the book?
$10
$7.50
$15
$12.50
$12.50
If the book is sold at a profit we know that the sale price is more than what he bought it for. 25% of $10 is $2.50. Therefore the sale price is $10 + $2.50 which is $12.50. It could also be seen as $10 X 1.25 =$12.50
Example Question #2 : How To Find Amount Of Profit
Sam was helping his school raise funds to buy books for the library. He bought small paper pads for $0.75 and sold them for $2.00. What was the percent mark-up, rounded to the nearest whole number?
150%
167%
66%
75%
None of the answers are correct
167%
$ Mark-Up = $ New Price – $ Original Price
% Mark-Up = $ Mark-Up ÷ $ Original Price
% Mark-Up = (2.00 – 0.75) ÷ 0.75 = 1.67 or 167 %
Example Question #2 : How To Find Amount Of Profit
Jenny has two jobs. The first is an office job salaried at $52,000 per year, so she makes the same amount of money every week, no matter how many hours she works. The second is a bartending job. She works 6 hours a night, 2 nights a week. She earns $3.50 per hour plus tips. If she earned $450 in tips this week, what is the total amount of money she made this week?
$1,021
$1,000
$1,450
$1,480
$1,492
$1,492
Salaried job:
$52,000 / year
1 year = 52 weeks
Therefore: $52,000 / 52 weeks = $1,000.00 per week
Bartending job:
6 hours x $3.50 per hour x 2 nights per week = $42.00
Total Earned = Salaried + Bartending + Tips
= $1,000.00 + $42.00 + $450 = $1,492
Example Question #1 : How To Find Amount Of Profit
A chair company produces 5,000 luxury chairs per year. Each chair requires $200 in wood and other materials to build. It also requires 3 hours of work by a craftsman, who earns $30 per hour. If the company wants to earn $3 million dollars in profit this year, how much should each chair cost?
$800
$750
$900
$850
$890
$890
Total cost of chair = materials + labor = $200 + (3 hours) ($30/hour) = $290
Total cost for 5000 chairs = $290 x 5,000 = $1,450,000
Profit = (5000) x Price per chair – Cost of Chairs
$3,000,000 = (5000) x Price per chair – $1,450,000
$4,450,000 = (5000) x Price per chair
Price per chair = $4,450,000 / 5,000 = $890
Example Question #1 : Profit Margin
A company made 
In addition to employee salaries, the company also pays 
What was the company's profit last year?
Annual profit = Total Annual Sales – Total Annual Expenses
Total Annual Sales = $400,000
Total Annual Expenses = Salaries + Rent + Expenses
2 employees @ $50,000 = $100,000
2 employees @ $70,000 = $140,000
12 months of rent @ $5,000 = $60,000
12 months of expenses @ $4,000 = $48,000
Total Annual Expenses = $348,000
Annual profit = $400,000– $348,000 = $52,000
Example Question #1 : How To Find Amount Of Profit
Madame buys 5 dozen eggs at 10 cents per egg. She then sells each dozen for 2 dollars. What is her profit margin?
Profit margin is equal to profit / revenue. She bought the eggs for (5)(12)(0.1) = $6 total. She is selling the eggs for (5)(2)=$10 total.
The profit margin is equal to 
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