• bstix@feddit.dk
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    9 hours ago

    It’s supposedly used for gross profit margin calculations, which is an equation for business stuff rather than an ordinary math function. It adds a profit of a margin calculated from the gross price. The gross price is unknown, so you’d input the net price and the desired margin of the result.

    Ordinary percentages would be used for “net margin”: net price + percentage of net price = gross price. This can be done by simple multiplication, such as: 100 x 1.2 = 120

    This does “gross margin”: net price + percentage of gross price = gross price. This would require solving an equation in several steps to do: 100 / ( 1 - 0.20) = 125

    It might seem like a rather random function to add to a calculator, but it has to be seen in the context of being prior to computer spread sheets, where accountants would make price lists of hundreds of products manually, so a short cut like this could save a lot of time.