Working Out Total Sales Using Comission Paid

Question

If a sales agent earns 70% of the sale as comission. And his comission comes to 1400. What was the total value of sales?

I know the answer is 2000 (70% of 2000 is 1400) but assuming you don't have the information of 2000 how would you work it out?

Thank you

Answer 1

Let us call the total amount of money earned from sales $S$. You say that 70% of the money earned from sales, that is, 70% of the amount $S$, he makes as commission. If we express 70% as a decimal, then we write \begin{align} 0.70\cdot S&=1400\\ \Longrightarrow S&=\frac{1400}{0.70}\\ &=2000. \end{align}