zoomzilla

yeah but you get into trouble when all you can remember is the cliffs notes version and dont know how to derive the solution to anything anymore No, I understand that. It sounded like he wanted a quick answer, not a math lesson, so I thought just giving him the quick answer would be the best route. But you are correct, it is good to know the logic behind it.

Damn. Make it easy for the dude. 5000 / 1.25 = 4000 You take your final figure and divide by 1+the percentage applied to get to the final figure to get the original amount. Works the same as the formula above, but is much simpler to remember.