Oscar's Oil Company provides customers a 5% discount if they pay their bill within 10 days. The Stevens' oil bill is $178. How much do they save if they pay the bill inside 10 days?
Find 5% of the bill through multiplying by the decimal equivalent of 5% (0.05); $178 × 0.05 = $8.90. They will save $8.90. A general mistake is to use 0.5 instead of 0.05 for 5%; 0.5 is 50%.