Mary beth and her family ate a meal in a restaurant the cost of the meal was $34.50 the sales tax was 8% of the cost of the meal

The total cost would be the tax plus the cost of the meal. In order to find the tax you can set up a proportion: 8/100=x/34.5. Then you can cross multiply: (100•x)=(8•34.5). Then we have 100x=276. Divide both sides by 100 and we have x=2.76. This added to the 34.50 is equal to 37.26. Hope this helps!