a local business made a $ 125000 profit on its first $ 1 million in sales and a $ 80000 profit on its next $ 2 million in sales . by approximately what percent did the ratio of profit to sales decrease from the first $ 1 million in sales to the next $ 2 million in sales ?	Pick one
A) 100 %  B) 150 %  C) 200 %  D) 250 %  E) 300 %

Rationale: solution : this is a percent decrease problem . we will use the formula : percent change = ( new – old ) / old x 100 to calculate the final answer . we first set up the ratios of profits to sales . the first ratio will be for the first 1 million in sales , and the second ratio will be for the next 2 million in sales . because all of the sales are in millions , we do not have to express all the trailing zeros in our ratios . first 1 million profit / sales = 125 / 1000 = 1 / 8 next 2 million profit / sales = 8 / 200 = 2 / 50 we can simplify each ratio by multiplying each by the lcm of the two denominators , which is 400 . keep in mind that we are able to do this only because our answer choices are expressed in percents . first 1 million royalties / sales = ( 1 / 8 ) x 400 = 50 next 2 million royalties / sales = ( 2 / 50 ) x 400 = 16 we can plug 5 and 6 into our percent change formula : ( new – old ) / old x 100 [ ( 16 – 50 ) / 16 ] x 100 = - 34 / 16 x 100 so approximately a 200 % decrease . answer c .
Answer: C