Question

Mr.Anderson paid $19.18 for a CD cover. This amount includes a tax of 8.5%. What was the cost of the CD cover before tax ?

Answer 1

x * 1.085 = 19.18
solve for x

Why is this how you figure it out? well... you have the price of the CD cover and the total is the price of the CD cover with tax. 

Price of the CD cover would be: x * 1 = price of cd cover
Put that tax on there: x * 1.085 = price of cd cover with tax

why .085? move that decimal over two places to the left from the 8.5%