What is the selling price of an item if the original cost is $784.50 and the makeup on the item is 6.5%

I think what you meant to type is "markup".  If the markup is 6.5%, we need to increase the cost by that amount.  To find 6.5% of a number we convert it to a decimal, .065, and we add 1.00, to get 1.065.  The 1, when multiplied, gives us the original amount, and the .065 gives us the additional amount.  We multiply that by 784.5.  784.5 x 1.065 = 835.49.  The other way to do it is to just multiply by 0.065, and you get 784.5 x 0.065 = 50.99, then add it to the original amount, 784.5 + 50.99 = 835.49.

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