Please help me on this

[sohaib_iba]

A painting is sold at a discount of 30% and still gives a profit of $20,000 if it had been sold at a discount of 40% it would have yeilded a profit of $15,000. Find

A) the cost of the painting
B) the original selling price

[uwhusky]

Shoosh, reading these badly written questions will hurt my verbal score!

This question is also not written in the GMAT format, which provides choices for answer. Can I ask why you are practicing on questions like these when there are many better GMAT practice questions available?

[gmatjedi]

0.7x=y+20000
0.6x=y+15000
x=50000= original selling price
y=15000= cost

[indiantiger]

Lets say the original price at which painting was bought is P1
and
The price at which painting was sold before the discounts = P

in first case when discount is 30% , cost of the painting becomes = 70P/100

70P/100 - P1 = 20000 ------A

in seconds case when the discount is 40%, cost of the painting becomes = 60P/100

60P/100 -P1 = 15000------B

subtract B from A

you get P/100 = 5000
P = 50000 (cost of painting w/o any discounts)

but back the value of P in A or B
You will get P1 = 15,000