Since there is a 40% discount, this means that they subtracted 40% of the original price from the original price, meaning that $36 is 60% of the original price. We can use ratios to figure out the original price (so 100% of the price).
100% x
60% 36
x = 36*100 / 60 = 3600 / 60 = 360 / 6 = 60
We can check this quickly: 60 * 0.4 (or 40%) is 24. If we subtract 60-24 we get 36, so we did the problem correctly
