What is Percentage ?
Percent means “for every 100” or "out of 100." The (%) symbol as a quick way to write a fraction with a denominator of 100. As an example, instead of saying "it rained 14 days out of every 100," we say "it rained 14% of the time". Click here to calculate your percent error.
Knowing how to calculate percentages will help you not only score well on a math test but in the real world as well. They are used for calculating tips in restaurants, finding out the nutritional content of your food, or even determining statistics of your favorite sports team. Regardless of how you plan to use the knowledge, calculating percentages is fundamental and quite easy overall.
Knowing how to calculate percentages will help you not only score well on a math test but in the real world as well. They are used for calculating tips in restaurants, finding out the nutritional content of your food, or even determining statistics of your favorite sports team. Regardless of how you plan to use the knowledge, calculating percentages is fundamental and quite easy overall.
Methods
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1. Calculating the percentage of whole |
- Visualize what a percentage represents. A percentage is an expression of part of the whole. Nothing is represented by 0%, and the whole amount is 100%. Everything else is somewhere in between.
- Determine the value of the whole. In some cases, you will be given the value for part of the whole and the whole. Other times, you might get two parts that make up the whole. It is important to distinguish what the percentage is “of.” For instance, let's say we have a jar containing 1199 red marbles and 485 blue marbles, making it 1684 marbles in total. In this case, 1684 makes up a whole jar of marbles, i.e. 100%.
- Find the value that you want to turn into a percentage. Let's say we want to find out the percentage of the jar that is taken up by the blue marbles. Then the percentage of the whole we are looking for is 485 (the number of blue marbles) of 1684 (the whole amount)
- Put the two values into a fraction. The part goes on top of the fraction (numerator), and the whole goes on the bottoConvert the fraction into a decimal. Percentages are best calculated from the decimal form. To turn 485/1684 into a decimal, divide 485 by 1684 using a calculator or pencil and paper. This comes to 0.288m (denominator). Therefore the fraction in this case is 485/1684 (part/whole).
- Convert the decimal into a percent. Multiply the result obtained in the step above by 100% (per 100 = per cent). For this example, 0.288 multiplied by 100% equals 28.8%.
2. Working Backwards From a Percentage
- Identify the given numbers you're working with. Say you borrowed money from a friend who is going to charge you daily interest. The amount borrowed was initially $15 and the interest rate is 3% per day. These are the only two numbers you need for the calculation.
- Convert the percentage into a decimal. Working backward from before, divide the percentage by 100%, or you can multiply by 0.01 (they’re the exact same). 3%/100% = 3/100 = 0.03
- Re-word the problem with your new values. It helps to reword your problem with the new value(s) now in the form of “X of Y is Z.” X is the decimal form of your percent, “of” means to multiply, Y is the whole amount, and Z is the answer. So, 0.03 x $15 is $0.45.
3. Calculate Discounts
- Write down the original price and the discount percentage. The original price is usually the big number that retailers will mark through or make especially large so you know how good of a “deal” you’re getting.
- Find the opposite of the discount percentage. This trick lets you perform 1 calculation instead of 2! The opposite of a percent is 100% minus the percent you are working with, i.e. the amount of the item you are still paying for. If you want to buy a shirt that is 30% off, the opposite of this is 70%, meaning you would have to pay 70% of the original price.
- Convert the opposite percent into a decimal. To convert a percent into a decimal, divide by 100%, multiply times 0.01,
or move the decimal two places to the left. In this example, 70%/100% = 70/100 = 7/10 = 0.7. - Multiply the original price by the new decimal. If the shirt you want is $20, multiply $20 by 0.7. This comes to $14, meaning the shirt is now on sale for $14
- Calculate your savings afterward to feel better. Once you get home, it can be a good idea to check your receipts, not only to make sure the discounts were applied correctly but to see how much you saved altogether. Here, you can simply subtract the sale price from the original price ($20 - $14 = $6 saved)!