A trader gives successive discounts of 10%, 20% and 10% respectively. The percentage of the original cost price he will recover is:

To solve this problem, we need to understand that successive discounts are not additive, but multiplicative. Here's how to calculate it:

1. Start with the original price as 100%.

2. The first discount is 10%, so the price becomes 90% of the original (100% - 10% = 90%).

3. The second discount is 20% of the new price. To find this, multiply 90% by 80% (because 100% - 20% = 80%). This gives 72% of the original price.

4. The third discount is 10% of the new price. To find this, multiply 72% by 90% (because 100% - 10% = 90%). This gives 64.8% of the original price.

So, the trader will recover 64.8% of the original cost price after giving the successive discounts.

To solve this problem, we need to understand that successive discounts are not additive. This means that we can't simply add the discounts together to get a total discount of 40%. Instead, we need to apply each discount one at a time.

Let's assume the original cost price of the item is $100 (you can choose any value, the percentage will remain the same).

1. The first discount is 10%. So, the price after the first discount is 100 - 10% of 100 = $90.

2. The second discount is 20%. So, the price after the second discount is 90 - 20% of 90 = $72.

3. The third discount is 10%. So, the price after the third discount is 72 - 10% of 72 = $64.8.

So, the trader will recover 64.8% of the original cost price after giving the successive discounts.