A salesman sells two kinds of trousers: cotton and woollen. A pair of ...
A salesman sells two kinds of trousers: cotton and woollen. A pair of ...
Given information:
- A pair of cotton trousers is sold at 30% profit.
- A pair of woollen trousers is sold at 50% profit.
- The salesman plans to sell 100% more woollen trousers than cotton trousers to achieve 45% overall profit.
- However, he ends up selling 50% more cotton trousers than woollen trousers.
Approach:
Let's assume that he sells 100 pairs of cotton trousers and x pairs of woollen trousers. As per the given information, he sells 50% more cotton trousers than woollen trousers. Therefore, he sells 1.5x pairs of cotton trousers.
Now, the total profit earned by selling cotton trousers = 100 x 30% x cost price of a pair of cotton trousers x 1.5 (as he sells 1.5 times more cotton trousers)
The total profit earned by selling woollen trousers = x x 50% x cost price of a pair of woollen trousers
The total cost price of selling all the trousers = 100 x cost price of a pair of cotton trousers + x x cost price of a pair of woollen trousers
As per the given information, he plans to sell 100% more woollen trousers than cotton trousers to achieve 45% overall profit. Therefore, the total profit earned should be 45% of the total cost price. Hence, we can set up the following equation:
(100 x 30% x cost price of a pair of cotton trousers x 1.5) + (x x 50% x cost price of a pair of woollen trousers) = 45% x (100 x cost price of a pair of cotton trousers + x x cost price of a pair of woollen trousers)
Simplifying the above equation, we get:
45x = 25x + 135
20x = 135
x = 6.75
Therefore, he sells 6.75 pairs of woollen trousers. As he sells 1.5 times more cotton trousers, he sells 1.5 x 6.75 = 10.125 pairs of cotton trousers.
Now, let's calculate the overall profit:
Total profit earned by selling cotton trousers = 100 x 30% x cost price of a pair of cotton trousers x 1.5 = 45% x cost price of 100 pairs of cotton trousers
Total profit earned by selling woollen trousers = 6.75 x 50% x cost price of a pair of woollen trousers = 33.75% x cost price of 6.75 pairs of woollen trousers
Total cost price of selling all the trousers = cost price of 100 pairs of cotton trousers + cost price of 6.75 pairs of woollen trousers
Overall profit = (Total profit earned by selling cotton trousers + Total profit earned by selling woollen trousers) / Total cost price of selling all the trousers x 100
= (45% x cost price of 100 pairs of cotton trousers + 33.75% x cost price of 6.75 pairs of woollen trousers) / (cost price of 100 pairs of cotton trousers + cost price of 6.75 pairs of woollen trousers) x 100
= (45 x 100 + 33.75 x 6.75) / (100 + 6.75) = 40%
Hence, the overall