Joyce paid \( \$ 180 \) for an item at the store that was 55 percent of the original price. What was the original price? Your answers is : \( \$ \) Give your answer to the nearest cent.

To find the original price, you can set up the equation where \( \$180 \) represents 55% of the original price (let's call it \( x \)): \[ 0.55x = 180 \] To find \( x \), divide both sides by 0.55: \[ x = \frac{180}{0.55} \] Calculating that gives: \[ x \approx 327.27 \] So, the original price was approximately \( \$327.27 \). Keep in mind that percentages can be tricky. A common mistake is forgetting to convert the percentage into decimal form! Ensure to divide by 100 when working with percentages—no one wants to leave money on the table by miscalculating!