A farmer recently sold a large plot of land. The sale decreased his total acreage by 12​%. Let v be the original acreage. Find two equivalent expressions that will give the new acreage. Use pencil and paper. Use the expressions to describe two ways to find the new acreage.

Answer 1

The decrease in acreage is equal to 12% of the original acreage v, so it can be expressed as 0.12v.

To find the new acreage, we can subtract the decrease in acreage from the original acreage:
Original acreage - decrease in acreage = v - 0.12v = 0.88v

Alternatively, we can find the new acreage by subtracting 12% of the original acreage from the original acreage:
Original acreage - (12% of original acreage) = v - 0.12v = 0.88v

Both expressions, 0.88v and v - 0.12v, will give the new acreage after the sale.