The owner of a boutique decides to calculate the percentage of customers who purchase hats. If 40 percent of the store's customers decide to purchase items, and of those customers 15 percent purchase hats, what percent of the store's customers purchase hats?
(a)4\%
(b)6\%
(c)15\%
(d)24\%
Answer
Answer (as printed): B
Explanation
Let the total number of customers be $x$. Then, number of customers who purchase hats $=15 \%$ of $$\begin{aligned} 40 \% \text { of } x & =\left(\frac{15}{100} \times \frac{40}{100} \times x\right)=\frac{6 x}{100} \\ & =6 \% \text { of } x . \end{aligned}$$ ∴ Required percentage $=6 \%$.
Explanation as extracted from the printed page; notation may be imperfect.