How to Work Out Percentages - Some Tricks to Help You Work Out Percentages Without A Calculator

Lisa HW Hub Author 4 years ago

Oh noo..... don't tell me that. :) Let's see: One percent equals one one-hundredth of any whole. If you cut up a giant pie into one hundred pieces each of those pieces would equal one percent. Ten of those pieces would equal ten percent.

To find the percent of any number write a decimal point followed by the percent you want to find. For example, to write 40% as .40. What that means is 40 one-hundredths of the whole. To find something like 40% of any number multiply that number by the .40 (40% written in a way that lets you multiply). You'll get a number that shows that 40% of the whole is.

The trick for finding 40% quick is to remember that 40 is 4 times 10. Finding 10% is easy because to do that you just move the decimal point on place. (For example, 10% of 80 is 8. Finding 40% is just a matter of finding that 10% and multiply by 4 (because 4 x 10 equals 40).

Lisa HW Hub Author 4 years ago

Well, it is the 580 multiplied by .06 (the .06 represents 6 1/100ths). The answer is 34.80.

Another way to do it is to quickly realize that 10% of 580 can be found by moving the decimal point over one place, and getting 58.00. 1% of 580 can be found by moving the decimal point over yet one more place (5.80).

You can then find 6% by multiplying the 5.80 by 6 (because 6 equals 6 1's). Again, of course, you will get 34.80.

Lisa HW Hub Author 4 years ago

Excellent, 7th Grade Kid. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 4 years ago

6th Grader: Sorry I took a while to see this, but here's my response:

55% of 72 is 39.6The regular way to find 55 percent of 72 would be to multiply the 72 by .55 (the decimal point shows 55/100ths, in other words, percent). If you had a dollar's worth of pennies, and separated out 55 of the 100 pennies you'd be looking at 55% of that dollar's worth of pennies.Another way to work it out would be:Look at easy tricks to figuring out .55%. Notice that you already know that there are 5 10's in 50.So decide to figure out 10% by moving the decimal over. Write that number down down.10% of 72 is 7.20.Now, though, you still need to figure out what the additional 5% is, but that's easy too:5 is half of 10, so 5% of 72 is 3.60 (because 10% is 7.20 you just divide it by two to find the 5%/half). Write down that 3.60 (the 5%).Since you've already figured out that 50% is half of 100% (of 72) you know that 50% equals 36.(You can either find that 50% by dividing the 72.00 by 2 or else multiply the 7.20 (10%) by 5 (because there are 5 10's in 50).You now that know have the 50% of 72. That is 36. You still have to add the 5% to it, though, because you're looking, of course, for 55% - not 50%.If you add that additional 5% (the 3.60 you wrote down before) to the 50%, you'll get the 39.60 (which is the 55% of 72.)You can check your answer by keeping in mind that 100 minus 55 equals 45. If you were to look for 45 of 72 you should come up with a number that, when added to your 39.60, should amount to 100% of 72. By multiplying 72 by .45 (percent - remember the decimal point) you'll get 32.40. If you add the 32.40 (the 45 percent) to the 39.60 (the 55 percent you got before), you'll find the two numbers add up to 72.00. That's because, again, 72 is 100% of 72 - and 45 and 55 add up to 100%.

Lisa HW Hub Author 4 years ago

Chikka, Math isn't always as hard as it can seem to be when you're in school. I'm not a math teacher, and math has never been my favorite subject (whatsoever); but when somehow all the things they try to teach in school just seem a lot easier once you get old enough to kind of see how easy things really are.

Something a lot of students don't realize is when they're "all nervous" and tense about homework or school subjects brain chemicals can actually change and make concentrating on what you're trying to learn more difficult.

What I recall about being around your age is not seeing math the way I eventually came to see it. As a student, I saw it as a bunch of unrelated things that were used to find numbers (or something like that). Once I got older I started to see that math is like a giant puzzles that makes one, big, picture (or whole) and that doing things like finding fractions and percents were really just different ways of seeing the pieces of that puzzle.

Another simple way to imagine math is to always kind of keep that picture of 100 pennies in your mind. You can imagine how you could multiply that dollar's worth of pennies by any number you want, or if there were a way to cut the pennies into tiny, equal, pieces, you'd be dealing with fractions (of 1). Math, though, is little more than ways of playing with those "pennies". Another way to see how math is nothing more than something that represents real stuff in the world might be to get something like a thousand Bingo chips or Poker chips; or else cut some paper into thousands of equal pieces and just play with it. Divide it into little groups of paper, add groups together, stack them up in equal stacks, and then make new stacks with different amounts of them.

I guess my point is that it's important not to think of numbers as "just numbers on paper" and math operations as "just isolated things you have to learn". While more advanced math can certainly seem a little trickier, in terms of drawing a connect connection to something like stacks of Poker chips or pennies, if you can get very comfortable seeing how 6th-grade math is pretty much a matter of that "whole" puzzle with all those different ways of altering the pieces of it; it may give you a sense of feeling more sure and ready to take on the more advanced math later.

I can give you some words to describe what I have on my desk right now, and you'll know that the words I type represent something very real and concrete. For example: cup of coffee, stapler, telephone. You have no problem knowing exactly what the words represent. Well, if I gave you a number that number would represent something every bit as concrete and real as the coffee cup, stapler, and phone are. If I tell you I have 4 books on my desk and tell you I'll take one away, you'll automatically imagine how I now have 3 books on my desk. The number of books I mentioned tells you nothing about what the books are, how big they are, or what color covers they have. Numbers represent, as you know, how many of anything there is, was, or will be. Numbers do a separate job than words do, but the thing with math is that it is about learning tricks for playing with numbers.

Maybe it would help if you could try to always imagine how every number in the world represents a poker chip or a part of poker chip.

Finally, something else that may possibly help you get a stronger feel for the way numbers fit together: Take a piece of paper, rule off ten or eleven vertical colums and, maybe, 20 horizontal rows. If you haven't already done this (or if it has been a while) start by making a multiplication chart with numbers 1 through 20 down the left-hand side, and numbers 1 through 10 or so across the top.

You'll find filling in the chart fairly easy, but as you fill it in notice there's a real "system going on" to the whole thing. Then try a different kind of multiplication chart. Try setting it up the say way but imagining, say, that you'll be paid 5.00 an hour for work. Down the side put something like "Week 1", Week 2", "Week 3" etc. and across the top head the columns with, say, 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, etc.

Imagine how much you could make working different numbers of hours each week, and then once you have your whole chart done you could notice how you could do easily check on something like, "If I worked for 20 hours a week how much will I have at the end of Week 4?" "If I worked for 12 hours a week how much would I have by the end of Week 3?" It doesn't have to be hours worked. It could be number of DVD's you'll be collecting, number of music files, or anything. The point is if you make yourself some charts when you have a little fre e time you'll start to get a real feel for how math is that bunch of puzzles pieces that fit together.

Someone hasn't managed to help you feel sure of math. If you take a little time to make yourself some multiplication tables (strange as that may seem) you'll be using what you already know, as well as noticing a few things you may have missed along the way. You'll be the one in charge of setting up your own math problems and what you'll do with them. It's one of the best ways to get that proverbial "hands on" experience and knowledge.

I hope all these words haven't just been a giant bore to you (or anyone else), but when people can really see the relationship of numbers to real life things (even though sometimes though things are abstract) math can be pretty easy.

Lisa HW Hub Author 4 years ago

It did go through, but after I replied to your first post I thought of something I should have included:

Actually, yesterday I did run into a $700,000 house I wouldn't mind buying if I had the extra money. Do you think I could hire myself out as a "Sixth-grade, math-homework-doer" and earn enough to buy that 14-room house, which always looks so great at Christmas time? :)

In the interest of full disclosure, I was a kid who had no trouble learning math in elementary school, but when I got to seventh grade I was put in an "experimental modern math" class (which came to be the math that is now taught in schools). I did ok until my family moved, and because the new school didn't have the same math program the other school had, I was put in yet another and more advanced "modern math" class for a couple of years.

Maybe it was the sudden jump, or maybe it was the teacher, but from then on I never could see how that particular math "related to real life". I had my good grades in high school math under certain circumstances, but my inability to find high-school math "applicable to real life" (bizarre as that sounds to anyone who knows better, including my more mature and present self) made it close to impossible for me to "waste my free time" on math homework (!!!). So, whatever homework I did I did in English class (where the material came easily to me and didn't require paying attention).

As a kid, I blamed myself for not being able to make myself do what I truly wanted to do and knew I should be doing. I was about 40 years old when I finally figured out that I hadn't been lazy or careless. I had been without a teacher who knew enough to just point out how math applies to real life and gives us a new way to approach problem solving - even when the problem isn't a mathematical one.

Kindergarten and first-grade children are routinely shown the "apples and oranges" problems, but when kids get to sixth grade or so, and the math is no longer about simply adding and substracting, I think adults sometimes don't realize that some kids (maybe most) still need to see how something like Algebra is used in real-life problem-solving. Sometimes, too, maybe kids need to learn not just one way to find something like percentages, but a number of different little tricks that - when they see them - will help them see how it all fits together.

I grew up to be a person who is ok with math. In fact, I grew up to be a person who actually uses Algebra in my real-life problem-solving, even though I've chosen to work in areas that are more words- or people-focused. Still, I know the schools are full of kids who are - to one degree or another - like I was, with some having their grades only mildly affected but others having their academic journey more seriously harmed.

In a way I feel like a fraud, presuming to attempt to offer tricks on even something as elementary as percentages; but then again, there's a part of me that thinks there's a chance a "non-math" person may be able to explain things to another "non-math" person in a way the other person relates to more.

I don't over-estimate the degree to which my little percentages hub may be of any help to anyone; but if it turns out that it's of a little help to a few students who, for one reason or another, didn't quite catch on in class, then, to me, that makes the half hour or so I spent writing so much more well spent than it would have been on some other activities.

Again, thanks for your kind words. (I suppose, though, I'll have to wait on that 14-room house for now. Maybe if I'd had a better love of math when I was in sixth grade I would have become an architect or engineer, instead of dreaming of becoming an English teacher or social worker. :))

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

Thanks for your nice words, Jen (but - believe me - it's no gift. It's more a matter of survival at the supermarket. :) )

Generally, I'd find 2.45% of any number by using the above "tricks" to find 24% of the number, and move the decimal point over one play to the left-hand side. For example, if you know that 24% of $100 is, of course, $24.00; then moving the decimal over one place to the left would give you $2.40 (which is the 2.4% of $100.00).

Another approach (that's easy but more complicated than the above quick approach) is:

Turn the 2.4% problem into two different problems: Since 2.4% is 2% plus 4 tenths of a percent, you could easily do it by first thinking of the number you're trying to find the percentage of, moving the decimal point over to get what 1% of that number is. Once you have the 1% you can then make the two different problems.

For example, if the problem is 2.4% of $100.00, you know immediately that 10% (or 1/10) of $100.00 is $10.00. That means that moving the decimal point over one place to the left will show you $1.00, which is, of course, 1% (1/100) of $100.00. (All the words I'm using to describe this initial process make it seems like a far bigger deal than really doing it is. )

Once you have your 1% keep that in mind (or write it down), because that's what will let you find your answers easily.

This is when you break the problem down into two very easy problems:

Since you want to find 2.4% you want to find 2% plus 4/10 of one percent.

The first thing is to find 2% by simply multiply the 1% by 2. In this simple case, since 1% is $1.00, mulitply that $1.00 by 2 is, of course, $2.00. You've got your 2% of $100.00. Keep that figure in mind, or write it down, until you do the second simple problem, which is:

Think about that 1% again ($1.00). Move the decimal point over one place to get get one-tenth of a percent (because now you're working with the numbers on the right-hand side of the decimal point 2.4%). Moving the decimal point will turn the $1.00 into .10 (ten cents). Since you now know that .10 is one-tenth of one percent, all you have to do is multiply it by the 4, and you'll get the .40 cents, which is 4/10 of a percent of $100.00. (Again, all the words make the problem look like a far bigger deal than it really is.)

Now that you know that 2% of your $100.00 is $2.00; and that .4% of $100.00 is .40 cents, all you have to do is add them together. You get $2.40 (which is, of course, the $2.40 you would get by figuring out 24% and moving the decimal place over one place).

In other words turn the problem into two little problems, dealing separately with the numbers on each side of the decimal point . Then add them together.

Thanks again, for your kind words. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

Hi, James. This particular type of calculation goes a little past the kind of "quickie mental tricks" I have for percentages that apply to grocery shopping, tips, and sales taxes. Most people would prefer to use a calculator for this type of calculation.

What you would need to do is figure out the difference between 29000 and 3500 (which is 25500). Because you're interested in what percentage 25500 is of 29000, you would divide the 25500 (the difference) by 29000. After calculating that, you would multiply the answer by 100. Depending on what you're doing you may choose to round, but if you do there will always be a slight discrepancy if you try to "back check" your figures.

(In other words, it used to be 29000 but went down by 25500, so what you need to know is what percentage of that original number (29000) is that 25500. )

You can check your calculations by figuring out what percentage of 29000 the 3500 is (divide 3500 by 29000 and multiply the answer by 100). Once you have what percent (parts of 100%) 3500 is, you can substract that percent from 100 - and you should get an answer that shows what percent of 29000 the 25500 is. (The 3500 is x percent of the original 29000, and the 25500 difference is x percent of the original 29000, and those percentages should add up to 100% of the 29000).

I got 87.9 for 25500; and 12.1 for the 3500. The 87.9 and 12.1 add up to 100%.

I'm including here links to a few sites that do a more "professional" job of explaining how to do this type of calculation (in order of helpfulness, in my opinion). I'm also including a "non-professional" link that adds a simple remark that may be worth including.

This is an excellent one (scroll down to where this type of calculation is done):

http://www.copydesk.org/words/math.htm

Here is one that shows it in a different way:

http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/QQ/database/QQ.09.06

These three links are also good:

http://www.helpingwithmath.com/by_subject/percenta

http://download.oracle.com/docs/html/B13915_04/per there's someone's simple remark on a non-math site:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=200708

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

Tes, I'm guessing you have too much on your mind. That's probably the biggest reason people have trouble getting math steps. For 30% of 72:

You could first find 300% (which is 3 times 100%) and then move the decimal.

Here's a typical example of a trick to do in your head:

You know that 3 times 7 is 21, so 3 times 70 is 210 (the decimal point moved over one place). You know that 3 times 2 is 6. If you add that 6 to the 210 you got when you multiplied 70 by 3; you'll have 216.

216 is 300% of 72, but you don't want 300%. You want 30%. To find that just move the decimal point over one place toward your left. 216 divided by 10 is 21.60 (don't forget you have to add that zero as a place holder when there is only one digit after the decimal point).

A different approach would be to find 10% of 72 and multiply that by 3 (because 30 is 3 times 10):

To find 10%, just move the decimal point over one place toward your left (in other words divide 72 by 10): Moving the decimal point to show 1/10 (which is 10%) in 72 would result in getting 7.20.

Once you get that 7.20 (which is only 10% of 72) you would want to multiply it by 3 (because, again, 30% is three times 10%). Multiplying that 7.20 (you got when you moved the decimal point over) by 3 (because you need 30% instead of the 10% you now have) will get you 21.60.

Yet another different trick finding 300% and dividing by 10:

Think of the 70 as one thing. Think of the 2 as another thing.

Think of 3 times 70, and you get 210. Think of 3 times 2 and you have 6.

Add the 210 and the 6 - and you have that 216. That's 300% of 72. Now just think of what one-tenth of that would be, and that, of course, would be the 21.60 (because you moved the decimal point over, which is what you do any time you want to find one-tenth of anything).

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

I'm going to use a half gallon (64 ounces) as an example of how to work it out (and assume no evaporation is going to be allowed to happen).

You know that right now you have 32 ounces of alcohol. You need to figure out how much 32 ounces is 35% of. First, you write the 35% as .35.

You know that 32 amounts to .35 of something (call it "x").

A different way to say it is: 35 x (think of it as "35 somethings") = 32.

How do you figure out how what x is? How many "somethings" go into 32 35 times? You would divide 32 ty 35, BUT because you're dealing in a percent you actually divide the 32 by .35 (the way you wrote that 35% above).

By dividing 32 by .35 you would get: 91.42857

You can check that answer by multiplying the 91.42857 by .35 (35 percent), and you'll get 32.

If you round off the answer you'll get 91.43 or 91.4, depending how much you want to round. You could also round to the 91 (because 43 is less than 50).

You're not done yet, though:

Now you need to subtract 64.00 from 91.43 to see how much water to add. 91.43 minus 64.00 = 27.43 ounces. If you didn't round you'd get 27.42857 ounces.

Again, you could double-check by calculating 35 percent of 91.42857. If you multiply that 91.42857 by .35 you will get 32.

Note: It's before 6:00 a.m. on a Monday morning. I'm pretty sure all this works out; and I hope I helped make things clearer; but if anyone notices some error in my wording - I'm not responsible!

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

Thanks, Proud Mom. With what I know you've had going on with your child recently, I can imagine how you may not have much interest in thinking about math right now.

I don't really know what I have for an IQ, but I don't think my fair understanding of junior high math is particularly an indication of much of anything. :) After the day I've had today, I think my IQ is about 45 right now. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

Thanks, Proud Mom. With what I know you've had going on with your child recently, I can imagine how you may not have much interest in thinking about math right now.

I don't really know what I have for an IQ, but I don't think my fair understanding of junior high math is particularly an indication of much of anything. :) After the day I've had today, I think my IQ is about 45 right now. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

To Sandy, who sent me the e.mail, "How do I figure a percentage of 77 out of 300? What would be the percentage?"

The calculator way is to multiply 300 by .77

An easy, in-your-head, way may be to first find 1% and 10% and work from there.

Since you know that 10% (one-tenth) of 300 is 30, you can just move the decimal to see that 1% of 300 is 3 (or you could have just divided the 300 by 100 to get the 3, but sometimes the first way I mentioned can seem clearer to some people).

Since you know that 30 is 10% of 300, all you have to do is multiply 7 times 30 to get 210 (which will you show you what "70 of that 77 percent") is.

Since you don't just want to know what 70% is, and need to know what "that additional 7% is), multiply that "additional 7" by the 3 (because the 3 is 1% of 300; so you're seeing percentages in "single units" for that additional 7).

Anyway, 7 x 3 is 21. So now you would know that the 70 part of that 77% is 210; and you would know that the 7 part of that 77% is 21.

If you add the 210 (70%) to the 21 (7%) you will get the whole 77% of 300.

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

steve, thanks (apparently, ibro, a couple of comments up, doesn't think so   :)   )

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

rachael, I don't know if you'll see this note, but I'm posting it anyway. I'm sorry I didn't see your e.mail until long past when my answer would have been helpful to you. Apologies.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

says, thanks. Someone else pointed that out. It started with a typo ages ago. I thought I had fixed it. I've removed the errors for now until I go back over it, see what typos was fixed or not fixed, and make whatever corrections have to be made as a result of it.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

tearing my hairout, sorry I haven't seen your comment until just now (six hours after you posted it). From what you have here, there isn't particularly a percentage problem, as it is a currency conversion one. You can find online currency converters that will convert pounds to dollars and or dollars to lbs. Here's one (but don't go to it until you read the last half of this response to your question, because I don't think the problem is really about the current conversion rate):

http://www.dollars2pounds.com/

I'm not sure what work your daughter's teacher wants her to show, if any, beyond converting the 7 dollar shirt into pounds. The converter above shows that the shirt would 4.28 pounds.

Based on the converter I used just now, the 5 dollar book would be 3.06 pounds. The conversion rate changes. The converter I used shows that the 12 dollar perfume would be 7.34 pounds. The total for the book and perfume are 10.40 pounds. I'm guessing the problem, though, is based on whatever conversion rate is presented - not the current one.

Current conversion rate aside, if you divide the 12 by 4.80; and if you divide 5 by 2.00, you'll see that the teacher's conversion rate is 2.5. Based on that, there would be 2.5 dollars for 1 pound. If you divide the 7.00 by 2.5 you get 2.80 (pounds). The total Baker spent in pounds is 9.60 pounds.

You can double check that by adding up in dollars what he spent (12, 5, and 7), which comes to 24 dollars. If you divide the 24.00 by 2.5 you will get 9.60 pounds.

I'm guessing what the teacher wanted students to know is to first find the conversion rate by dividing dollars by pounds; and then use that to figure out the rest of the problem.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

The conventional way to figure that kind of thing out is to multiply the 250 x .40 (in other words, multiply 250 by 40%).

The quick-trick way to do it is to keep in mind that you can find ten percent and multiply it by 4. There are a few reasons that can make this kind of percent problem much simpler.

You can find 10% (one-tenth) of 250 just by knowing that with 250 there's an imagined/invisible decimal point that is after the 0. All you need to do is move that decimal over one space toward your left to see one-tenth of 250, which is 25.

Now you're dealing with the smaller number (25) that's easier to work with it/multiply in her your head. Also, now you're dealing with only having to moving the decimal point after you're finished.

So, with a problem like this, keep in mind that one-tenth of any number is also one-tenth of 100% (because 100% means "all" of any number).

So all you have to do is think of one-tenth/ten percent of 250 (by mentally moving the decimal point over and "turning it" into 25. Now that you have 10%, all you have to do is multiply that by 4 (because 40% is 4 times 10%).

The answer to your problem is that 100 people were senior citizens (because 25 people would be 10%/one-tenth, and multiply 25 times 4 gets you 100).

You could double-check your answer by thinking of what 60% would be (because 60 and 40 would add up to that 100%). If you think of how 25 is one-tenth/10% of 250 and multiply 25 times 6, you'll get 60%. 6 25's is 150. Double-checking will show you that the 60% (150) added to the 40% you got earlier (100) adds up to the 250.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

Skyman, sorry I haven't seen my e.mail (with comments from Hubs) until a few hours after you posted. If I understand what you want to do, it's just to find averages? In order to find an average you add up each number in a column of the different numbers you have that apply to one thing or another (as in the case of your column of 13 percentages) and then divide what you get by the number of numbers in the column.

In other words, add up your 13 different percentage numbers and divide the total by 13.

Lisa HW Hub Author 4 years ago

Thank you. A donation button sounds good to me, but I don't think HubPages would approve. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

It's not, but if whatever is already here is of use to any junior high people, all the better.

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

6 is 6% of 100. 94 made pick-ups would be 94%.

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

Lee, for a problem like finding out "what $463 is 35% of":

There is a response to "James'" comment above that tells how to get the answer to such a problem; but there are also links (show in the response to James) that may be explain that kind of calculation better. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

The "usual" way would be to simply multiply 90 by .78.

You need to figure out 70% and 8% and add them together to get 78%. Figure out 70% by knowing that 10% of 90 is 9. Multiply the 9 that 9 by 7 (get 63). Then know that since 9 is 10% of 90, .9 is 1% of 90. Multiply 9 x 8 (get 72), but because 9 is 10% (not 1%) you need to add the decimal that will divide the 72 by 10. (7.2). In other words, when thought of that 10% of 90 (9) that would get you the 70% because 70 is a two-digit number and ends with 0.

Because the 8 is in the "ones column" (as compared to the 7 in 70 that's in the "tens column") you have to add that decimal that will turn the 72 you get when you multiply 9 x 8 and make it one-tenth of 72, which is 7.2.) 63 (which is 70%) and 7.2 (which is 8 percent) equal 70.2 when added together.

From a slightly different approach:

Another mental trick may be to think of what 1% of 90 is (.9 because you've moved the decimal point over two places). From there, temporarily forget about the decimal point.

Break down the 78 into 70 and 8.

Think of how 7 x 9 = 63 Because you want to five 70% (not 7%) percent, though, and because there is that 0 after the 7 in 70, by not returning that decimal point "mentally removed" you are allowing for the fact that 70 is ten times 7. In other words, don't return the decimal point you took out if you're looking for a "two-digit percent" like 70.

Next, multiply 8 x .9. This time, though, return that decimal you mentally removed because 8 x 9 will get you 72 but because you really should have been multiply .9 (which is 1% of 90) by 8, you have to return that decimal point.

All these words make it all seem complicated; but the mental actions involved go really quickly.

So, what you end up with is that you have come up with 70% of 90 (63) and 8% percent of 90 (7.20). Then just add the 63 and the 7.2 (because you're adding 70% plus 8%) - and you'll get the 70.2 (which is 78% of 90).

A quicker trick may be to instead figure out the easier 22% of 90 and then substract that from 90 to get the 78%. The reason this may be easier is because all you have to do is find the 1% and double it.

If you figure out the 20% by thinking of how 1% of 90 is .9 (so remove the decimal point before figuring out 20%), you'll end up with 18.

If you then divide that by 10 (because 2% is one-tenth of 20%), you'll end up with 1.8.

Since 18 plus 1.80 = 19.8 - that's what 22% of 90 is.

Then substract the 19.8 from the 90 - and you end up with 78% of 90.

The only reason I suggest the "22% approach" in this case is that 22 has the same number (2) to deal with. It can make things that much simpler when figuring out things mentally. Also, because 2 is so close to 1, it makes things that much easier again.

Sometimes how to mentally figure out a percentage can best be approached by first asking what would be the simplest and most "mental-friendly" approach.

Yet one other approach (maybe the quickest):

Aim to figure out the 22% (because it's the smaller and easier number) and later subtract that from the 90.

You know that 10% of 90 is 9, so 20% of 90 will be 18.

Now figure out 2% (because you need to figure out 20% and also 2% to get 22%) by knowing that that 2% is one-tenth of 20%. Once you know that 20% is 18 you can easily realize that 2% is 1.8 (the decimal point made the difference).

From there, simply add the 18 to the 1.8, and you'll get the 19.8. You will have the 22% of 90, so all you have to do is substract that 19.8 from 90 to get 78%

A quick mental trick to substract something like 19.8 from 90 is to think of the "nearest easy number" (in this case, 20) and substract that from 90. (90 minus 20 is 70). Because you know that substracting 20 from 90 is subtracting a little more than the 19.8 you have to think of the difference between 20 and 19.8 to know how much you need to substract from the answer you got (because you substracted slightly more than than the 19.8). In this case, the difference between 19.8 and the 20 you used for convenience is .2. So add the .2 to the 70 you got when substracted 20 from 90.

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

Thanks, kashifmahmood. They come in handy during grocery shopping too. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

Laura, I'm not quite sure exactly how to interpret your question.  (Maybe it's me, and it's late - but I'm assuming you want an answer quickly.)

Moving the decimal point over 1 place (toward your left) will divide a number by tenths. With an example like 600 (you shouldn't see the decimal point, but I'll add where it's "implied") would be 600.  If you move it once toward your left you'll essentially divide 600 by 10 (60.)  Move it once more to your left, and you divide it by 10 again and get 6.   (Again, the decimal points shouldn't be there, or else they should have a zero after them.)

To further divide the above example by ten, you would move the decimal point in 6 (or 6.0 once toward your left and get .6 (6 tenths). Move it again once, and you have .06 (there zero makes a "spacer" in this case).

With 6.5 you're dealing with one whole number (the 6) and the .5 (5 tenths because it is one place after the decimal point). 

Assuming you need to move the decimal point at all (there is such a thing as 6.5%, but I'm assuming that isn't the case here), you would move the decimal point in 6.5 over once toward your left and get .654 to reflect a percentage (hundredths and a little more than you may want/need).  Depending on how accurate you want to be, you could leave .654 or else round the 4 (and because 4 is less than 5 you would drop it off to round things off).

If you were to try to check your math "backward" by using the .65 you would find it just slightly off; but if you checked it by using the .654 you would come up with an accurate figure that proved your math was correct.

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

Linda, first you have to figure out the difference between the original 57,500 and the new 62,250. You probably already know that you just just substract the 57,500 from the 62,250 - and get 4,750.

The way to figure out what percent of 57,500 the 4,750 is would be:

Divide the 4,750 by 57,500 (on a calculator is always easiest), get the answer, and the multiply that answer by 100. In this case you need to round, because there's a string of numbers beyond the "hundredths" space in the answer.

If you divide 4,750 by 57,500 you get 0.082609. You then can round it off.

A kind of backwards way to find the same thing (just so you can maybe see what's going on with this type of problem) is this:

You can figure out how many "4,750's" go into 57,500. Since it cannot be evenly divided, you'll come up with a figure that represents a fraction of the 57,500.

If you divide 57,500 by 4,750 you get 12.10526. That tells you what part/fraction of 57,500 the 4,750 is.

Since you need to know what percentage of the whole 57,500 it is (and since 57,500 is 100%, or ALL, of itself); you can divide 100 by that 12.10526 to come up with a percentage too. Again, you need to round.

(I hope I wasn't too late responding here, and I hope I didn't make any stupid errors - kind of bleary eyed at this time of night, but I didn't know if anyone else would see your comment and respond.) (Actually, I did make a stupid error but caught at least that one. )

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

Not sure I understand if the question is related to an above comment, or just a question about 1% on its own; but I'm assuming a general question:

If you have "all of" something (any number) it is like having 100 equal little pieces of it. Those "equal little pieces of it" are 100 little "pieces" in the form of a single percent each (1%).

Showing 1% of any number is done by moving the decimal point over two places in the direction of your left hand. After you move the decimal point, if there are a string of number after it you either round them up/down (in a situation like when you're figuring out sales tax); or you could leave them until all the "figuring out" has been done before rounding (or choosing not to).

You can think of it as if any number is something like a cake. A small number is a small cake, and the the bigger the number the bigger the cake; still, what 1% is this: If you cut any "cake" (number) into 100 little pieces, each will represent 1%.

50 pieces of that "cake" means 50 little pieces that are each made up of 1%. (50%) 25 pieces of "cake" means, of course, 25%.

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

JPSO138, this hub has surprised me. It was a request I saw ages ago, and I thought, "I can answer that easily enough - think I'll answer the request." It has surprised me that anyone other than the person who made the request has even looked it. Based on the surprising number of e.mails I've gotten from this hub, I guess a lot of junior-high aged students seem to have liked it. It's not my best piece of writing, by any means, but I kind of like that it has apparently been useful to some students.

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

wonderful, sorry if it didn't help. If you have the time, and want to ask a specific question, I'd be happy to try to be help.

jada, thanks. Glad it helped someone. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

Ibro, this site was prepared in answer to someone's request about how to find percentages.  It was the aim to show some quick tricks to help people figure it percentages easily (maybe at the supermarket or when figuring out a restaurant tip, etc.)  

I used a casual, "non-math", style of wording because I figured if someone has trouble with figuring percentages they are either very young or else people who benefit more from "non-math"/more casual explanations.

I have no doubt that this page is not what a lot of people, looking for math information, will be looking for.  Based on feedback/traffic it gets, however, it is apparently what has answered some people's question about how to figure percentages easily.   Based on several nice e.mails I've gotten from junior-high age students, they are generally the "audience" for this site; but based on those e.mails, I have to say that I don't call it "BS" if a page has helped even a few kids learn their math.  My thinking has been that the world is full of more "formal" or "advanced" sites/books and even people who teach math, and none of it apparently got through to some of those kids who e.mailed me (at least when it came to figuring out percentages). 

So, this page is an "unfancy"/"folksy" attempt to share some quick percentages tricks with anyone who has/had trouble with doing that.  Nobody is pretending it's anything more important or useful than that.  I have no doubt many people will find it is "BS" (that's ok), and I do think it's unfortunate if it hasn't been helpful to you, as you had thought.  I hope you found the kind of helpful information you were looking for, and remind  you that search engines don't always "know" exactly what you're looking for, and send you a bunch of different sites in search results.

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 years ago

Tiffany, you'd need to know the total number of votes in addition to how many votes someone got. From there you would use the same approach you use to find out what percent of one number another number is. In other words, if there were a total of, say, 500 votes you'd need to figure, "161 is what percent of 500". If I understand the type of "product discount" percentage problem you mentioned correctly, this would be an example of that:

Product used to sell for $100. Today it's on sale for $80. To find out the percentage of the "discount" you'd first consider the $20 difference; and then ask "what percent of $100 is $20". That step, there, is the same as you'd use for the voting question (minus the dollar/cents factor).

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

Serina, first you'd figure out how much 25% is. A quick way is to divide the number you're dealing with by 4.

Another way is to figure in your head: What is 10% of the number in question. Then think of half of that 10%. (which will tell you what 5% is). Multiply whatever number is 10% by 2 (because you want 20%) and then add the number you got for 5%.

Now that you have whatever 25% is, you want to find 22%. The easiest way is to think of what 10% is by moving the decimal point over one place. Multiply the number you got (for 10%) by 2 (because 20 is two times as much as 20).

Now think of what 1% is by moving the decimal point over one more place (from where it was after you got the 10%). Again, multiply the number you get (for 1%) by 2 (to account for that extra 2 over the 20%).

Add the number you got as 20% to the number you got as 2%, and that's 22%.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

Kristi, I don't have any quickie mental tricks for that (and actually, I've been sick for a couple of weeks and can't really concentrate to write). So, I'm including this link, which shows the conventional way to figure out that type of problem:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2364017_percentage-numbers

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=200901

Actually, here's a site that will do the calculation for you:

http://lachie.net/maths/percent.html

I may think of a mental trick for that in the near future. Sorry not to be of more help.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

Chris, you need to figure out what percent of 800 300 is.  The way to do that is to divide 300 by 800, and then multiply that by 100.  What you're essentially doing is figuring out how "800 units" can be equally divvied up among 300 "units".  Then, because percent is hundredths, that's why you multiply by 100.

In this case, you'll find that 300 is 37.5 percent of 800, so that's  your answer.

A different way to do it is to realize that 8 is 1% of 800 (percent is hundredths, and you get that by moving the decimal over two places; so you can do it in your head).  Once you know what 1% is you ask, "How many 1%'s go into 300?"  If you divide 300 by 8 you'll see that you get the 37.5 as well.

Just as a tip for getting a rough idea of how big a number you're looking for: You know that half (50%) of 800 is 400, so you'd know ahead of time that because 300 is less than 400 you'll be looking for a percentage under 50%.

Another "grounding" tip: You know that 10% of 800 is 80, so it's easy to know that 20% would be twice that (160). 30% would be three times 80 (240). At this point you may see that the 240 is getting kind of close to the 300; and, again, you know that 50% is 400. Again, this kind of thing can give you some "grounding" about the ballpark you're looking for.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

Chris, just another overlooked "grounding" tip:  Since you know that 4 x 80 is 320 (because you know that 4 x 8 is 32, and you're just dealing with the extra zero/tens), you'd also know that 320 is higher than 300.  That means  you can know that the answer to "what percent of 800 is 300" is going to be between the 30 and 40 (%) - in other words, in the 30's.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

Sexy jonty, thank you for the kind words. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

andromida, thanks. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

William, I'm not sure how your comment relates to the subject; but I have to admit it adds a little "lightness" to an otherwise boring topic. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

Author's Note: Somewhere in my account I ran into a comment that pointed out an error. That comment isn't showing up here, even though I approved it; so I don't quite know what's going on there.

In any case, I will return later to look for both the comment and the error pointed out by it. There's been a lot of a quick typing and "math gymastics" going on when I've tried to do things quickly here - so, again, I'll be back to correct the error and see whatever happened to that comment.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

Del, great. :) Thank you.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

dogboy, to find something like 10% of, say, 50 you'd imagine that with the 50 the decimal point (which isn't ever written for whole numbers) would be after the zero (like 50. ). If you were dealing with 50 dollars it would, of course, be written out 50.00. So, keeping in mind where the decimal point (written or not written) is with any number...

To find something like 10% you would move the decimal point over once toward your left. With the 50. you'd move it from being after the zero to being after the 5, which would give you the 5 as 10% (1/10th) of 50.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

Artisan, thank you. If you are, you're not alone - that's for sure. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

dan, you would divide the 310 by 387 (first) and then multiply the answer by 100. In this case, you'd have to round up at the end. (More later).

First, as a way of helping show what's going on, the reason you need to divide the 310 by 387 is that 387 represents "the whole", so you have to "assign" equal 387 "equal parts" in relation to the 310 "units". It's Step 1 in seeing the relationship between each of the 310 "units" to the "whole", 387. In other words, in order to know what number you'll be dealing with, you have to "break up" each of the 310 "units" in a way that relates to the 387.

So, if you divide 310 by 387 you get: 0.801034 (rounding down would get you 0.801. The next step is to multiply that by 100 (by simply moving the decimal point two places toward your right hand - or by using a calculator if you want).

From there you have: 80.1%

If you check to find 80.1% of 387 you'll get 309.987, and if you round up (to make up for the fact that you rounded down earlier), you'll see that 310 just about 80.1% of 387.

If you hadn't rounded down above, and if you multiply 387 by the 0.801034 you'll get just a tiny bit over 310 (but not enough to round up).

So - with a problem like this, divide the smaller number by the bigger number, and then multiply what you get by a 100.

Essentially, what you're doing with this kind of problem is trying to see a relationship between 310 "units" and 387, so you have to divide. The problem is that there isn't even one "387" in 310, so you're going to get equal "pieces" that don't amount to one whole "piece". If you picture trying divide 310 cookies by 387 you can imagine the bits you'd have to break them into. Because, with percentages, you're dealing with a larger number than "all those bits", and because percentages are about hundreths, that's why you multiply by 100 after dividing.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

Rod, hi. I'll try (although sometimes it can be tricky to figure out how much or how little to say and still hope to make something easy). I'm not sure I can make it shorter, but maybe I can make it simpler. I'm going to try to separate all the ideas with a lot of spacing, to make reading easier.

A Reading Tip:

If you don't do this already, sometimes when you're reading about math stuff it can help if you whisper what you're reading to yourself (or even read aloud). That helps you get the information in through your ears, and sometimes listening to "math stuff" is easier than try to "make your eyes" get the message to your head.

I guess the main idea is to try to make all the numbers smaller, so they're easier to work with in your head (if the problem is one that you can do that with).

The one thing you have to know (or keep in mind if you already know it) is that every number has a decimal point, whether it shows or not. If you have something like $5.00 (to find some percent of) you can see the decimal point. If you're talking about 500 apples you can't see the decimal point, but you know it comes after the second 0, and just doesn't show up.

So, if you had to find 20% of 500 apples you could come up with 10% easily, because all you have to do is move the decimal point (either on paper or in your head) over one place (toward your left hand).

First you picture that 500 (apples) really has an invisible decimal point after it (like 500. - but you can't see it.)

So, even though you really want to find 20%...

First find 10% because it's really easy to do. (If you move the decimal point over one place toward your left hand you'll get 50 (or 50. if you imagine the invisible decimal point).

Now that you know 10% of 500 is 50 it's really easy to just think of two times 50 in order to find 20% (because you know that two 10's make 20). 2 times 50 is 100. That means that 20% of 500 is 100.

If you want to make the numbers even smaller and easier to deal with (on a problem like this one)...

Instead of finding 10% to make things easier, find 1%.

The reason it can help to find 1% first is because all you need to do to find the 20% (which is really what you want to do) is multiply 1% times 20 (because 20 1%'s will be 20%).

For example, with the 500 all you have to do is know that because percent always involves hundredths, 1% is 5.

(1% of 300 would be 3. 1% of 600 would be 6. etc. etc.)

If you need to move the decimal point toward your left hand in order to find 1% you would move it two places. At the bottom I'll make a comment about moving the decimal point over.

So, now that you've figured out that 1% of 500 is 5; if you want to know what 20% is you just multiply that 5 times 20. (5 "single/1 percents" times 20, because you really want to end up knowing what 20% is).

Why? Because there are 20 1-percents in 20 percent.

To check that the answer is right here's what you can think of:

100% always means ALL of something. 20% means PART of something. If you know that there are 5 20's in 100, the way to check your answer is to think of how many 20's (or how many "twenty percents) there are in 100. You probably already know in your head that there are 5 20's in 100.

That would mean that if you think of how of the answer you got for 20% (which was 100) and multiply times 5 it will show that you end up with the 500 (apples) you started with.

Note About Decimals points:

Moving the decimal point over one place toward your left hand means "dividing the number by 10". "Dividing by 10 is the same thing as finding 10%.

Moving the decimal point over two places toward your left hand means "dividing the number by 100". Dividing the number by 100 and finding 1% are the same thing.

With a little trickier kind of problem like: 13% of 500 you could do something like...

Think of 10% of 500 (by moving the decimal point so to get 50 instead of 500). So now you know that 50 is 10% of 500, but you really need to know what 13% is. Remember that 50 is 10% and then do step two:

Think of 1% of 500.

(Either by picturing moving the decimal point over two places and getting 5; or else by thinking of one tenth of the 50 you got (because there are 10 "single percents" in 10%).

1% of 500 is 5.

Now that you know 1% is 5 all you need to do to figure out how much that extra 3% is (that we left out of the 13% when we only figured out how much 10% is).

Just multiply the 5 you got for 1%) by 3 (because you really want 3%, not just 1%). 5 times 3 is 15.

To figure out 13% of 500 then, just add the 10% and the 3% you got (which was 50 for the 10% and 15 for the 3%).

Since 50 plus 15 equals 65, that means that 65 is 13% of 500.

Rod, I know this one example of percents of 500 doesn't really do it; but what would probably help you get how to figure out many percentages in your head would be if you think up problems yourself, finding different percentages of 100.

Find 10% of 100 (it's easy - remember? Just move the decimal point over one place).

Find 20% of 100. Just find different percentages of 100 (simple ones at first, like 40%, 50%, etc.).

Then try to find things like 45% of 100 or 65% of 100.

(To find 45% find 40% and 5% and add them together. To find 65% find 60% and 5% and add them together.)

(To find 40% think of 10% first and then multiply it times 4. To find 60% think of 10% first and multiply that times 6.)

To find 5% of a number think of what 1% and then multiply that by 5. To find 6% of a number think of what 1% is and multiply that by 6. etc. etc.

Hope some of this helps.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

Dan, to find out what percent of 1199 the 700 is you would divide the 700 by the 1199 (on a calculator - this one I don't have a quick mental trick for) and multiply the answer by 100. It comes out to 58.38198 (and if you round you'll get 58.4%).

If you check for 58.4% of 1199 you'll see that it's a "hair over" 700.

If you wanted more accuracy you can, of course, use the calculator for the above steps and instead don't round anything up or down.

(I hope I worded this right and didn't "do any oversights". It's 7 in the morning here - no coffee yet. LOL.)

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

kenny, thanks.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

whatever: Looks to me, then, like you fit real well here.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

stephanie, it's not clear to me what you mean. If you're looking for percents that are related to the price of something, it's all kind of the same thing.

Please overlook it if my attempt to clarify/be helpful shows that I don't really know what you were looking for: If you're looking for prices (for example 50 percent of ten dollars) the ten dollars would be written as 10.00 (with that decimal point showing 10 dollars and no cents/change).

If you're writing prices you always know that there are spaces for however many dollars are in the price, then there's the decimal point, followed by however much change is also in the price. Ten dollars and ninety-nine cents would, of course, look like $10.99

So, to find any percentage of any price, you would picture how it would be written first (or imagine it in your head); and you'd figure out the percentage with the decimal point in mind.

If the problem were simple enough you wouldn't have to do that, though. For example fifty percent of ten dollars means "half" of ten dollars dollars. Since you know that five is half of ten, you'd easily known that five dollars ($5.00) is fifty percent (50%) of ten dollars ($10.00).

One reason for using decimals (besides needing to use them when change is involved) is that it makes figuring out the percentage pretty easy. All you have to do is picture (or write down) how the price would look in numbers, and use that decimal point that's in all prices (if they're written out correctly) to help you figure the percent you're looking for.

Again, apologies if I don't "get it" with regard to the kind of thing you're looking for. I've just taken a wild shot at guessing what additional information may possibly be helpful.

Feel free to post with an example of the kind of problem you want to solve. I may or may not see it right away (depending on if you post at all, but I'll be back to try to answer as soon as I can).

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

To increase by a percentage, you would simply multiply the number by 100 percent plus whatever the percentage is. For example, if you want to add 20% of 100 you would either use a calculator to get 120% of 80; or else you could do some such problems in your head:

Since you already know that 80 is 100% of itself, you just have to figure out what 20% is and add that. An easy trick is to think of how 2 times 8 is 16 (if you do that you're leaving off the zero in the 80 in your head, but it makes it easy).

Then all you need to do is add 16 to 80 (which is 100% of itself).

Another quick trick to find that extra 20% is to think of 10% of 80 (easy - it's 8) and multiply that 8 by 2 (because you know 20% is 2 times 10% percent).

To decrease a number (as in the example of 20% and 80) you could either use the tricks to get the 20% and just substract that.

Or else, you could substract the 20% from 100 (which you can easily do in your head) and come up with 80. Once you have that you know you'll be looking for 80% of 80.

You could, of course, either use a calculator or write it out on paper and find find 80% of 80 the "usual way". Or, you could do one that easy in your head:

Since you know you'll be looking for 80% of 80, you go back to thinking up 10% of 80 (8) and multiply it by 8 (since 80 is 8 times 10).

So the only difference with a decreasing-by-a-percentage problem is that you first subtract the percentage from 100 to figure how what percentage you're really looking for - and then you use the tricks to find that percent.

Lisa HW Hub Author 2 years ago

karina, I never thought much about them (I have other math things I hate, but not percentages). From what I've seen, though, I guess you're far from alone. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 24 months ago

pam, the way you have the .10% written, that's one-tenth of a percent. Ten percent could be written .10 (one-tenth) or else 10%, but since, if you were to add the "invisible decimal point", you'd write 10.0 for ten; with both the decimal and percent sign it makes it one-tenth of a percent. (With both the decimal and percent sign, there's an "invisible zero" before the decimal point.

With the problem you posted, I'm going to use 10% to keep things simple. You can always move the decimal point later if you really want one-tenth of a percent.

I'm also going to use the word, "units" instead of "percents", because it can seem simpler:

If some original number was reduced by 10%, that would mean the 1,605,837 is 90 percent (or 90 "individual percents/units") of that original number.

Since you the 1,605,837 makes up 90 "units" of the original number you need to divide the 1,605,837 by 90 in order to see what one "unit" is.

Once you know what one "unit" is you can multiply that number by 100 to figure out what the original 100% was.

When you divide the 1,605,837 by 90 ("units") you get 17,842.63. If you multiply that by 100 (which you can, of course, just do by moving the decimal point over two places), you get 17,84263.

You can check your answer by finding 90% of 17,84263 and seeing that it's 1,604,837.

The above example is going with the problem that the 1,605,837 was what happened when you reduced a larger number by 10% (ten percent).

If it was reduced, instead, by a tenth of a percent you'd move the decimal point accordingly. You'd still start out by finding what number each of those 90 "units" represents.

There are other ways to do this kind of problem, but I think this way is the simplest for someone not entirely comfortable with percents, or just someone who likes to reduce the risk of making a mistake with a zero or decimal point somewhere earlier in the problem.

I just always find kind of using 10% as a "base" if possible makes things a lot simpler.

Lisa HW Hub Author 23 months ago

Ivan, thank you for your kind words about the site.

I'm not completely sure if I understand your question correctly, but finding 45 percent of 20 in your head (of, if you need it, making a couple of quick notes on a scrap of paper) is easy. There are a few different ways you could use "quick tricks".

One easy way would be to aim to first figure out 5% percent, and because you already know that there are 9 5's in 45, all you'd have to do is multiply 5 percent by 9.

The quick way to find 5% if to think of 10% (because you know that there are 2 10's in 20.

So, first you see that 10% of 20 is 2. That means, of course, that half of 10% (5%) is 1.

Since you started out knowing that there are 9 5's in 45, all you have to do is multiply 9 by 1 in your head - and you've got your 45% of 20. 9 x 1 is, of course, 9 (which is 45% of 20).

-----

Another approach to some problems like this one:

When I first look at the 45% of 20 problem, my instinct is to think of how I already know that 45 is half of 90. That means if I figure out 90% all I have to do is think of what half of that is (or figure out what half of it is) to get 45%.

Finding 90% is easy because 90 is 10 less than 100, so all I have to do is see what 10% is - and then substract that from 20 to get 90%. Since it's easy to know that 2 is 10% (one tenth) of 20, and it's easy to know that if I substract 2 from 20 I'll get 18 (and, again, since 45% if half of 90%), I can easily see that 45% of 20 is 9.

-----

Another approach might be this:

Find (or think of) 40% of 20 first, then find (or think of) 5% of 20 - and add them together.

It's easy to find 40% by thinking of what 10% (one-tenth) of 20 is; and then multiplying it by 4 (because 40 amounts to 4 times 10).

So, since you know that one-tenth (10%) of 20 is 2, all you have to do is multiply 2 times 4 to get 8 or 40%. (Some people may want to jot that down until they get the 5% that they're going to add to the 8 they came up with when they figured out the 40% of 20.

Figuring out 5% is easy with this approach because you already figured out 10%. So, you just think of how half of the 10% (2 in the problem here) is 1.

Now all that needs to be done is add that 1 you just got to the 8 you got when you figured out how much 40% of 20 is - and you've got the 9.

In answer to your question about "timing by 100" you wouldn't do that if you had a problem like "find .45 of 20". You'd do that if the problem was one like: "What number is 9 45% of?"

If you're doing a problem like the 45% of 20 one, you don't really need to think about the decimal point unless/until you see that one is needed later. Calculators show percentage with the decimal point, so you can see exactly where the calculator is at any point in your calculations. When you're doing a problem like this in your head you can just think of 45% as "45" and deal with adding any decimal points later. For example, with a number like "20" the decimal point is "invisible" but would be after the zero.

If the problem were different, and were "find 0.045 of 20" you would use the same mental tricks as for 45% (.45) of 20, but then you'd know that you had to move the decimal point (even if you start out with an invisible decimal point in 20). The reason you'd move the decimal point over one place would be because you wanted to show that "9" (45%) divided by 10. So, instead of 9 (9.0), .045% of 20 would be .09 (because you moved that invisible decimal point that we don't see after 9 over one place (and added a zero in order to show that the decimal point had been moved over one place).

When the calculator shows that decimal point it's showing that you're finding 45 one-hundredths of 20 (because one-hundredths are "one-percents"). If there wasn't a decimal point it would look like you're multiplying 20 x 45.

When you do these "quick tricks" to find percentages, you kind of already have it in your head that finding percent; and when you do something like find 10% (one-tenth) because it's easy, you've already done the "dividing" you need to "get you into a percent mode" with whatever you do from there.

Lisa HW Hub Author 23 months ago

Ivan, thank you for such nice words. I'm glad it was helpful (because sometimes people come to this Hub hoping to find it helpful and seeing it didn't help them very much). We (HubPages) writers get comments sent to us through e.mail, so when I see a question show up I'm always glad to at least try to answer it. This Hub is a different kind of Hub than a lot of the other Hubs I've written. I wrote in because someone asked how to do percents, so I figured these "tricks" might be helpful to someone. It turns out there are a lot of people (often students) looking for help on how to do one kind of math problem or another.

I'm not all that "smart" (trust me on that LOL ). With something like basic math stuff, though, a person doesn't need to be particularly great with math to find a few handy tricks.

I'd describe myself as "being confident with basic math problems", and because students and learning are something I've spent a lot of time thinking about (I have three grown kids who went through the public school system), I'd like to try to answer your question about how I got "confident" with this particular kind of math thing.

One thing that I think got me off on good footing with basic math was that I went to an old fashioned elementary school (no frills and not even a lot of the most common things, like a cafeteria or gym). The teachers were elderly (and I mean "elderly" - like born in the latest 1800's). They taught the basics in all subjects, but they were pretty good at it. So I think it's important that kids in the first few years of school learn the most basic things, like "math facts" (multiplication tables). Everything after learning those basic math facts is based on them.

Sixth grade was a lost year for me because the teacher was senile (truly senile - I'm not being funny). In seventh grade I was put in an "experimental math class", but then my parents moved and the new school didn't have the same kind of "experimental math". So halfway through the year I was "completely turned off" of math because I was fed up that I hadn't just been put back in a "regular" math class, rather than being jumped ahead to math that was more advanced than the the "experimental" math had been. I stopped doing all math homework for 7th and 8th grade. I was a thirteen-year-old girl with "better things to think about". LOL For high school I had matured, and so I "shaped up" once I got into math like Algebra and Geometry. I even took an extra math course (Business Math) because I thought something that "practical" might be useful.

Once I had been "separated from my earlier interest in math) when that sixth-grade teacher was as ineffective as she was, I never regained any particular enthusiasm for, or interest in, math. Maybe it was me (although I think it's this way for a lot of students, especially girls), but there were never any teachers who managed to know how to share their own enthusiasm (if they had any in the first place) for math.

Although I somehow managed to often get good grades; to me, math class was always a matter of teachers "droning on and on", or else (because math teachers usually used the board to show how things were done) I'd get aggravated because I'm not a "visual" learner. I'm an "auditory" learner.

I'd pick up a good part of what the teacher was saying, but I wasn't super confident with a lot of it. Then, because I wasn't interested in math, I'd get agitated when homework time came (and being agitated means being stressed; being stressed means having trouble concentrating because "stress hormones" rise and actually affect our ability to concentrate).

What I realized I needed to do was "never mind about the right terms" and even "never mind about how teachers say to do one thing or another"; and instead, put things (in my head) in my own terms and "find my own way to being more comfortable with" different things in math. Of course, that doesn't always cut it with a "show-your-work" kind of quiz or test; but where it did "cut it" was that I had the confidence to think I had "the right" to figure out my own ways of "getting to know math better" (rather than seeing it as a subject that "belonged" only to people who love it.

The words used in math aren't interesting words to a lot of students in the process of trying to learn it. Students who lean toward having stronger verbal-related skills can find math words so boring it can seem as if they all run into each other, and none of them particularly stands out as "memorable" or "interesting". A lot of the "droning on and on" just doesn't capture the attention of some students, and a lot of the people who teach math aren't particularly "verbal" people. They're "math" people.

My tip to any student who sometimes feels like he's "drowning" with one kind of math problem or another would be to "make yourself a life-line" by taking whatever you already have learned about math, putting things in words that make whatever you do already know seem more "catchy", and using that to pull yourself to "dry ground".

If you take whatever you already DO know, and "make it yours" by "mentally playing with it" (on paper if you need to), it can put you on that much better footing to then use the "sureness" you've built for yourself for learning the next thing in math. I guess the thing is there can be a gap betweeen what teachers try to teach and what students actually completely learn. Students (maybe particularly "verbal" students) need to find a way to fill in that gap in some way that works for them.

Students can't fill in that gap with anything but what they already have (in terms of knowledge of math). What they usually "have" is SOME knowledge of the subject and their own way of using words, as well as their own set of things that will make "seeing" the subject easier for them.

A lot of students don't have the confidence to try to think of their own ways of filling in that gap. In fact, a lot of students are not encouraged to do that. They're often told, "Here's what you need to do, and you need to do it this way." A lot of students think, "There's the teacher. The teachers knows the subject. Here's me. I don't like this subject, and I don't know it. End of story."

One student may never eventually "love" the subject; but trying to make it more "catchy" in one's mind by "playing with" what one already knows can at least eliminate having to overcome the fact that a student finds math tediously uninteresting. If a student can get to the point where he's at least comfortable with whatever he already knows, math no even needs to be interesting. It's then "turned into" something that's "matter-of-fact" to learn.

I think the challenge, though, is that students are pretty much on their own when it comes to that "figuring out ways to fill in that gap". They need to know how they best learn, how they can best recall things, and how to make something more interesting for themselves. They need to have enough confidence to say, "I need to do this my way, just for now, until I learn it better." I think they also need teachers and parents who understand that, for some students, "doing it my way first" helps fill in that "gap" (so they can then go on and do it "the right way").

I don't know if any of this is at all helpful. The length of my response probably very much backs up my claim that I'm more of a "verbal" person than a "math" person. LOL

Lisa HW Hub Author 23 months ago

Ivan - LOL. Nowhere near 80! I was in elementary school in the 1960's, and those teachers were - like - my grandmother's age (and she was born in 1881, so that's where I came up that era). My mother was in her 40's. If her mother had been alive she would have been in her 70's. With the exception of one, young, kindergarten, teacher; the youngest of the teachers in that school was way older than my mother - and the rest of them only got older from there!! A couple/few of them may have been born between, say, 1900 and 1920.

confused kid, I'm kind of confused about your post too. I'm just going take a couple of guesses about what you're asking. Please overlook it if I don't understand what you mean exactly:

If what you're asking if how to find 10% that's a really easy thing to do. 10% is always one-tenth of any number. All you have to do is look at (or think of) the number you want to find 10% of, and move its decimal point over. Since numbers don't always show up with decimal points (because the decimal point isn't really required for whole numbers), first you just have to think where the decimal point should.

For example, if the number is 33 you need to (at least while you're figuring ten percent) think of how the decimal point would be 33.0. Later you can take out the decimal point, but for figuring 10%/one-tenth, it makes things easy.

If the number you wanted 10% of was 105, you'd add the decimal point like this: 105.0

Once you know where the decimal point (even an invisible one) is in any number, all you have to do is move it one place over toward your left hand to find one-tenth (10%) of it. So, if you wanted 10% of 450: First you put in the decimal that you can't see (450.0). Then you move that decimal point over one place toward your left hand. It will look like this": 45.00 Since you're dealing with a whole number (like 450) you don't need those zeros after the decimal point. Because, when there is nothing but zeros after a decimal point it means you have a whole number.

So, once you see that 10% of 450(.0) shows up to be 45.00 you can drop off the zeros. You now have 45.

If you're looking for 10% of 15: You can see that 15 is a whole number. It's not 15.5 or 15.7, or anything like that. It's just plain, old, 15. All you do is add that invisible decimal point to 15. You add it right after the 15, so it should look like this (at least while you're doing your figuring): 15.0

Now, you move the decimal point over one place toward your left hand, and it will look like this: 1.50 That's 10% of 15. Since you can't drop off the 5 (because the only thing you can ever drop off are zeros that follow a decimal point); you'll see that 10% of 15 is 1.5. (You can drop off that zero because it's at the end).

In other words, any time you want to find 10% of any number all you have to do is divide that number by 10.

To find 1% you move the decimal point TWO places over toward your left hand. The good thing about finding 1% is that you can multiply 1% by whatever percentage-number you need to. If you want to find 4% of 50, all you have to do is find 1% of 50 (the way I showed above) and then multiply that 1% by 4.

There are other ways of finding percents that may make sense for a lot of people (especially someone who uses a calculator), so the only benefit to the approaches I'm showing here is they tend to make finding percentages easier (and something you can often do in your head).

Hope some of this is a little more helpful. Feel free to ask for further clarification if there's a chance I can make it any less confusing. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 23 months ago

confused kid, just another thought after the above comments I made to address your post:

Maybe what the 15% confusing thing was that it showed up in the kind of problem that could be done most easily in a couple of different steps. The "tricks" I'm offering here are based on the more basic math facts that a lot of people are really comfortable with, even if they aren't finished with school or aren't "math people".

As I showed above, it's easy to find 10% of something. Since you can't find 5% the same way, the next-easiest thing to do is find 10% and divide it half (because finding 10% is simple, and because you know that 5 if half of 10).

Or, the other easy way would be to think of 1% and multiply that by 5.

What I'm trying to offer are "tricks" or different ways to figure percentages either in your head or without a lot of figuring on paper. I'm not offering the "usual" way of figuring percentages a lot of times here, because I was aiming to show those "quick tricks". So I can see how there are places where such odd tricks may not make sense to some people. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 23 months ago

Ivan - nope. Not 60, 70, or 80. LOL If you really have to push the age thing, I'm in my 50's (and still getting over the fact that I'm in not in my 40's, so that's as much I can make myself admit. LOL ) I'm not all that knowledgeable, but thanks for the compliment. I just try not to write or talk about the stuff I don't know and stick with the stuff I do. LOL

Lisa HW Hub Author 23 months ago

PC, Hi. I think there's a chance you just did a little something wrong with the calculator or missed a step (or something like that). I'm assuming you may have done a "percent trick" and were then checking it on the calculator?

If you were finding 5% of 763 you could do it first by thinking of how 10% of 763. All you do to get that is look at the 763, know it would have a decimal point after it (if the decimal point weren't invisible) (so it would be 763. ) and then move that decimal point you put in over one place toward your left hand. (so 10% would be 76.30)

Then all you do is divide that 10% (76.30) in half (because you know that 5 is half of 10).

Since you're in sixth grade I don't know if you can yet do a problem like "half of 76.30 in your head". A lot of sixth-grade students may not be able to quite yet. (One thing about these percent tricks is they were aimed at people who may be a older than sixth grade, so I took it for granted most people can do some of the most basic stuff in their head. Anyway, I'm going to guess about what sixth grade people can easily do in their head, because it's been a long time since I was in sixth grade :) ).

Anyway, I'm going to guess about what you may have done (although I can't guess about that 1678-thing; I think that was a calculator thing, maybe):

If the problem were to find 50 percent of 763, to do that on a calculator you'd multiply 763 by .50 (which is what 50 percent would look like if you wrote it out). If you multiply 763 (punch that in first on that calculator) by .50 (forget the percent key on the calculator for now and just use the multiplication key) by .50 you'll get 381.5. Sometimes it's easy (in your head) to just think of dollars while you're doing percents. Turn everything into dollars - and if you weren't really dealing in dollars with the original problem, you can "turn things back into non-dollars" after you've done the math. It just helps you keep in mind where the decimal points and zeros go along the way).

Since 50% is half of 763, to check that 381.5 answer all you would do would be multiply the 381.5 times 2 to make sure there are really 2 381'5's in 763.

If you were finding five percent of 763 the five percent should look like this .05 (and you'd multiply the 763 by .05 either on a calculator or on paper).

For the most part, I can't really think of too many times you'd need to divide if you were either using the mental tricks here to find percent, or else using a calculator or paper to find percent. Usually, it's a matter of multiply by whatever percent you need to know.

The one reason I think you may have been dividing (if you were trying to do a percent problem) was if you were trying to approach the problem by finding 10% first and then dividing that in half to find 5%.

If you were trying to find half of 10%, you would have first seen that to get 10% of 763 you'd move the decimal point over one place toward your left hand (after you pictured an invisible decimal point being after the 3), you get 76.30. So if it were dollars, 10% of 763.00 would be 76.30.

If you originally had wanted to find five percent (.05) of 763, you'd need to divide that 76.30 (10%) you got in half (because 5 is half 10).

If you divide the 76.30 (ten percent) in half you get 38.15 (so that would 5 percent of 763).

Another guess about why you may have been dividing:

If you were trying to find fifty percent of 763 you could get that by dividing 763 by 2 - not by fifty percent. Again, if you're finding percent on a calculator, you multiply, putting in the "starting number".

If you trying to find fifty percent of 763, the reason you'd divide by 2 is because fifty percent is half of one-hundred percent.

There are four kinds of percent problems that are super easy to do in your head (which is why you can sometimes start with one of them and take it from there):

100% is all done for you with any number.

50% always means "just divide in half"

10% is easy because you just move the decimal point.

1% can be found by moving the decimal point 2 places over.

Keep in mind that if you find 1% you always multiply by whatever percent/number you want to find (that can help you feel like you understand percents better and can make what's happening with percents a little clearer for you).

Hope some of this helps.

Lisa HW Hub Author 23 months ago

Ivan, not only do (and will) I remember you, but I mentioned you (and your "thing" about my age) to my sister over the weekend. LOL (She's around my age, so she sees the humor in my discomfort with admitting my precise age on the Internet.)

Lisa HW Hub Author 23 months ago

sian-a, (I don't know if you're asking for an example of a "mental trick" or just how to figure out that particular kind of percentage problem). I'm going to go with just "how to figure it out" (no mental tricks for now), because I want to answer you but I don't quite have the time right now to write out how, exactly, I'd do that kind with a "mental trick". It takes a little time to think up how to explain something in a way I think may be easy to read) I figure, if you're asking how to do that percent in general, you need a quick answer. If you're just interested in a "mental quick-trick" to do it, I imagine it isn't any emergency. :)

Mental tricks aside, the simple answer to that one is multiply 45 by .40 either on paper or with a calculator.

Another way might be to move the decimal point to get 10% (4.5), and then multiply that by 4 (because there are 4 10%'s in 40%). (Someone might wonder what would even be the benefit of doing something like this approach on a calculator or paper, and the only benefit might be that for a student who's not comfortable with percentages, it can sometimes help to make a problem seem simpler (and then to change it back to what may have seem like a more difficult problem).

Lisa HW Hub Author 23 months ago

sian-a, before I leave this for now, there is one quick mental trick that's different from the approach I used above:

With something like 40% of 45 I might "turn that 45 into 90", because that's divisible by 10 and would make using the above "tricks" easier.

Of course, since 90 is two times what 45 is, I'd have to divide the answer I got by 2.

So, I might do something like:

Turn the 45 into 90.

Think of 10% of 90 (which is, of course, 9)

To get 40% of 90 I'd know to multiply the 9 by 4

(because 9 is 10% and there are 4 10%'s in 40%)

So, since I know that 4 x 9 is 36, I'd see that 40% of 90 is 36.

Since I didn't really want 40% of 90 and really wanted 40% of 45, I'd have to think of what half of 36 is (and that's 18).

18 is 40% of 45, and you'll see (be able to check) that if multiply 45 by .40 on a calculator or paper.

There you have the 40% of 45 (with a somewhat odd approach, I know. :) )

Lisa HW Hub Author 23 months ago

Sean, this gets beyond the "mental-tricks" category, but what you'd do is first see that at $210, you'd be paying $30 less. That $30 is what you'd be focusing on.

You either want to know what percent of $240 the $30 is (because that will tell you what percent the price was reduced), or else you want to know what percent of $240 the $210 is (because that would tell you what percent you'd be paying - with whatever the difference between that and 100% is showing the percent reduction) (But forget this approach for now. I'm only mentioning it as something to keep in mind if a problem is ever easier to do by doing it this way.)

If you think of "percents" as "units" instead (or too), it can make seeing how this kind of problem works seem less complicated. I'm going to use the word, "units," because I think it can make it easier to describe what's happening in this type of problem.

Since you want to know what percent of $240 the $30 is, you first want to think about dividing up that $30 into 240 equal "pieces". Why? Because you need to know the relationship between 30 and 240.

As you know, to figure out how many equal "pieces" you could divide the 30 into, you'd divide 30 by the 240 (and it would be easier to do that on a calculator, although you don't have to. It's just that I don't have a quick mental trick for this kind of percent problem).

Once you divide 30 by 240, you see that it comes out to 0.125

Here's the word, "units", comes in: The way to remember that you have to divide the smaller number by the larger one is to imagine how you have to come up with however many equal "units" ("pieces") would "go to"/"go with" each of the (in this case) 240 individual dollars (or "units"/"pieces").

So, you divide the $30 difference in price by the original $240 price, and you get the 0.125

Then just multiply that 0.125 by 100 because you want to know what relationship 100 of those 0.125 "units" would have to $30.

Just by moving the decimal point over two places you can see that 0.125 by 100 is 12.50. If you feel more comfortable with doing it on a calculator, you'll get the same thing by multiply by a 100 on that.

You can double-check your math by finding 12.5% of 240 - and you'll see that it's 30.

Looking at the problem the other way (seeing what percent 210 is of 240), you can see that if 30 is 12.5%, 210 is 87.5% of the original 240 (because you're subtracting the 12.5 from 100% and seeing that what's left is 87.5)

Hope this helps.

Lisa HW Hub Author 23 months ago

sean w, thanks. The way you posted isn't just "an easier way" - it's pretty much THE way (as in "the way people learn in school how to do that kind of percentage problem). :)

I'm not so much addressing you here (since you seem to be all set when it comes to percentages now :) ); but you raised a point worth addressing about how there are pretty easy ways to do math problems; and how about how, in some ways, I've made things appear a lot more difficult by using a lot of words to try to explain how things are done.

This Hub began only as a "quick-mental-tricks" Hub, and it turned into one with people asking percentage-problem questions beyond quick mental tricks. Questions have come from young students, people who are having trouble with percentages, had trouble with that particular type of math problem in school, or just forgot.

Pretty much most of what I've offered in the Comments section (anything outside the "main Hub" here) is a matter of my assuming whoever has asked how to do one kind of problem or another could use someone to explain in a way other than the way math books or math teachers explain (because the "more conventional way" of teaching how to a percentage doesn't always work well for some people).

So what's here (as far as my responses to questions goes), is a whole lot of wordiness (and even "wackiness", at least within the context of math) that comes from my kind of stabbing-in-dark and trying to think of some "non-standard" way to make what's going on with percentage problems clearer to anyone who isn't comfortable with them.

One reason people forget what they learned in math (whether it's with percentage problems or other kinds of problems) is that they don't see "what's going on behind the written equation". It can look like "nothing but numbers/letters on paper" (even if they know what each number/letter represents and so can do the equation). What often happens is people learn how to do one kind of math problem in school, and then they forget a few years letter because they never really learned "what was going on behind the equation" enough for it to stay with them. It was just "one more kind of math problem to memorize".

I just thought it might be worth pointing out that if someone is looking for the "standard way" to do a percentage problem they'll be better off going to one of the links offered here. People looking for any quick mental tricks for doing percentages usually understand they won't be getting the "standard" way of doing things.

How all the comments seemed to evolve into being "regular" percentage-problem questions, I'm not sure - but that explains why there's so many unconventional approaches to doing things on this particular Hub. :)

sean (although the above wasn't particularly aimed at you and was instead aimed at kind of explaining to anyone else who reads from now on); thanks for pointing out something that never occurred to me (as a result of how this Hub started out as one thing and evolved into something else). This Hub has been up for awhile, and it has kind of evolved over time. You've given me some ideas of for making it better than it is now, so thanks.

Lisa HW Hub Author 23 months ago

Ivan, it does affect me. It's nice to think that the Hub has helped someone with a test in school. Thank you for coming back to share that nice piece of information.

Lisa HW Hub Author 22 months ago

ss sneh, I was unaware of that particular percentage. LOL

Lisa HW Hub Author 19 months ago

Sim, I shouldn't be second-guessing what you say here; but I'm wondering if what they're saying is that 40% of the grade will be based on a test; and the other 60% made up of the other two (assignment and exam) combined (with the assignment making up 35% of the whole grade, and the test making up the 25% of the whole grade. (25% and 35%, of course, add up to the 60 - so I was just wondering if that's what they doing.)

Having said that (and if it's going to 25% of 60, etc.), if I were aiming to do it quickly I'd think of 10% of the whole grade and first multiply it by 4. That's the 40% quickly. What's left would be the 60%.

From there I'd find 10% of that number (the 60%)and multiply it by 2 to get 20% of the 60%. Keeping in mind what that 10% of the 60% was, I'd think of half that (5% is half of 10, of course) and add it to the 20% to get the 25% of that 60%).

I'd do the same kind of thing to get the 35% of 60% (get the 10%, multiply it by 3 to get 30%; then after half of 10% to get the 35).

(I still suspect they're saying 40% of the grade will be based on the exam, 35 based on the assignment, and 25 based on the test. Maybe I'm wrong, of course. :) )

Lisa HW Hub Author 18 months ago

Sim, probably the quickest way to find something like 35% of anything, might be to do something like think of what 10% is and then divide that in half to get 5%. For 35% (because there are 7 5's in 35), multiply what you got for 5% by 7.

With something like 25% of anything (or, as you say, 50% of something), just dividing by 4 or 2 (whichever applies) is easiest.

Lisa HW Hub Author 11 months ago

Note to "Lost" (I don't really know what you're comment isn't showing up, but I'll reiterate it for anyone reading: "Lost" commented that s/he is "lost" because it "seems like the above info skips some steps").

Reply: Hi, Lost. I'm sorry the info isn't helpful. The Hub does skip steps because the aim was to try to offer people "quickie" tips for finding percentages in their head. A better resource for the conventional way to work out percentages can be found in the gray block near the top of this Hub, which contains links to math help.

If you have a question about any of quick-trick examples I've included here, feel free to ask; and I'll do my best to clarify anything. :)

Lisa HW Hub Author 7 months ago

Shannon: I approved your comment for posting here, but for some reason it isn't showing up. (Technical problem I'm having.) I was going to re-type it here, but now I can't seem to find your version of it either.

In any case, you asked about problems such as finding out what percentage of 40 27 is, or how to find out something like what percentage of 50 13 is.

You would find the answer to that kind of percent problem this way:

First you divide the 27 by 40.

Then you multiply the answer by 100.

In the example of what percent of 50 13 is,

you would divide the 13 by 50.

Then you multiply the answer by 100, and you'll get 26%. (13 is 26% of 50).

You can check this one easily by thinking of this:

13 is 13% of 100. So, because 50 is half of 100, 13 would make "twice as much of a percentage". (Two times 13 is 26.)

Basically, what you want to figure out (for example, in the one with 27 and 40) is, "How can I chop this 40 into equal 27 equal little bits. That's why you divide the 27 by 40. Once you see what each of those equal little bits are "worth", you need to multiply them by the 100 because that's what will show you what percentage of 40 the number, 27, is.

I hope this helps. (And I'm sorry that I seem to have done something to make posting your comment a "technical problem". We've had some changes in settings on HubPages, and maybe I've done something wrong with my setting.)

Lisa HW Hub Author 7 months ago

Shannon, if, by any chance, you're having trouble finding your own comment (Oct 11, 2011) and my reply, look farther up (toward the middle of the comments). I've discovered some "technical issue", and I don't know what to do about it right now.) In any case, your comment and mine are both there.

Lisa HW Hub Author 3 months ago

Thank you, everyone for your comments, kind words, and questions. They've helped raise issues beyond the original intent of this Hub, and if it weren't for the comments and questions I wouldn't have thought to include a whole lot of things that I hope may have been helpful to someone. Sincerely appreciated.