Matt and natalie with to dinner and left their waiter an $8.00 tip. that tip was approximately 25% of the cost of their dinner. what is the best estimate of the cost of their meal?

If 8 is about 25% or 1/4 of the total cost of their meal, that means that the total cost was 4 times the cost of the tip.

Put it into proportions-

8:25
x:100

Since you have to multiply 25 by 4 to get to 100 you need to multiply 8 by 4 to get to x.

8 times 4 is 32, which is also the value of x.

The total cost would be $32.