By selling an article at 80% of its marked price, a merchant makes a loss of 12%. What % profit will the merchant make if the article is sold at 95% of its marked price? Options:  A) 5% profit  B) 1% loss  C) 10% profit  D) 5.5% profit  E) 4.5% profit
Explanatory Answer   Approach: Assume cost to be $100   Let the marked price be S and the cost price of the article be $100.   When the article is sold at 80% of its marked price, it is sold at 0.8S.   Selling the article at 0.8S results in a loss of 12% of the cost.   Therefore, the loss incurred when selling at 0.8S = 12% of 100 = $12.   Hence, when selling at 80% of the marked price, the article is sold at 100 - 12= 
<gadget id="calculator">100 - 12</gadget>
<output>88</output>
$88.   i.e., 0.8S= $88.   or S = 88/0.8= 
<gadget id="calculator">88/0.8</gadget>
<output>110</output>
$110.   If the merchant sells at 95% of the marked price, he will sell the article at 95% of $110= $104.5   The profit made = 104.5 - 100 = $4.5.   % Profit = profit/cost price=4.5/100 = 4.5%   Choice 4.5% profit
<result>E</result>
By selling an article at 80% of its marked price, a merchant makes a loss of 12%. What % profit will the merchant make if the article is sold at 95% of its marked price?