How to Calculate the Original Price from Discounts and Markups

Sheena Doria

This instructional math video provides a comprehensive tutorial on calculating the original price of items in various real-world scenarios involving discounts and markups. Through a series of clear, step-by-step examples, the narrator demonstrates how to reverse-engineer the starting price when given different variables, such as the discount amount, the sale price, or the markup rate. The video uses specific formulas for each scenario, emphasizing the relationship between percentages, decimals, and whole numbers. The content covers four distinct problem types: finding the original price given a discount amount, finding it given a final sale price, finding it given a markup amount, and finding it given a final selling price including markup. A significant portion of the video is dedicated to the procedural math skills required to solve these problems, specifically converting percentages to decimals and performing long division with decimal movements. The step-by-step visualizations of the division process help demystify the arithmetic that students often struggle with. For educators, this video serves as an excellent resource for 6th and 7th-grade math units on ratios, proportions, and percentage applications. It effectively bridges the gap between abstract formulas and practical application by using shopping and retail examples. Teachers can use this video to introduce the concept of 'working backward' in percent problems or as a remediation tool for students who struggle with the specific mechanics of dividing by decimals.