The price of an item yesterday was $120. Today the price fell to $78 find the percentage decrease

To find percentage decrease, we need to see how "much" of 120 was taken off.

So, let's call the percentage x (the percentage in decimal form).

120 * x = 78

so,

78/120 = x

.65 = x

So, our percentage in decimal form is. 65, to get it to an actual percentage, we multiply it by 100 (since a percentage is out of 100)

The percentage decrease is 65%

The answer is $120.00-$78.00=$42.00