Someone in the office asked this question, and we are attempting to solve it (it seems to be a friendly brain teaser around the work place).
We tried to do a more consumable method where the values weren't scary high.
We tried saying 5 is 50% more of x.
Our equation would be 5 / 0.5 = 10
If we follow that style of equation, then
10,900,000 / 2.99 = 3,645,484.949832775919732
Is 3,645,484.949832775919732 correct?
If not, can someone walk us through the answer?
On
To say that "$y$ is $a\%$ more than $x$" means that "$y$ equals $x$ plus $a\%$ of $x$". That is,
$$y = x + \left( \dfrac a{100} \right) x$$.
Thus if $5$ is $50\%$ more than $x$, then $$5 = x + \left( \dfrac {50}{100} \right) x = \dfrac 32 x$$ so that $x = \dfrac {10}3$.
You need to solve $$10900000 = x + \left( \dfrac{299}{100} \right)x = \dfrac{399}{100}x$$ for $x$.
No, it's incorrect. You have to divide by $3.99$ not $2.99$. You would be correct if the question said, "$10,000,000$ is $299\%$ of $x$," instead of $299\%$ more than $x$. Just as $100\%$ more means twice as much, $300\%$ more means $4$ times as much, and this is a just a tad less.
Generally "$p$ percent more" means as much, plus another $p$ percent.