Understanding percentages is an important skill. Just think of how often you are in a store and see a sign advertising 30 percent off or encounter a credit card commercial where the card company boasts about its 10 percent APR. In addition to understanding how to decipher percentages, being able to determine what percent one number is of another number is an important skill. If you are new to calculating percentages or are in need of a refresher, the topics below should help.

Defining Percentage

Percentages are used to express the size of one quantity versus the size of another. In most cases, percentages for write an essay for me using the percent sign, but they may also be denoted using the abbreviation "pct." Mathematically, percentages represent a fraction of 100. So, if you see 25 percent or 5 percent, you can think of these numbers as 25/100 and 5/100, respectively. These same percentages can also be represented in decimal form as 0.25 and 0.05.

Practical Uses of Percentage

Percentages are useful for making comparisons between a variety of quantities. Thus, an essay writer free grades are typically calculated using percentages. Likewise, things like sales and income taxes, as well as gratuities are nearly always figured using percentages. Using percentages in these situations makes it much easier to determine how much an individual owes in taxes or how much they should tip for their meal. Additionally, stores often hold sales where savings are based on certain percentages being taken off of the final item price.

Calculating Percentage

To solve for the percent value, the value of the ratio of the part to the whole must be multiplied by 100. That is to say, that if you want to know the percentage of 100 students out of a total number of 1250, then you must first solve for the ratio between these two numbers: 100 / 1250 = 0.08. The numeric value of the ratio, in this case 0.08, must then be multiplied by 100: 0.08 x 100 = 8 percent. Multiplication as the first step will also work for finding percent value: 100 x 1000 = 10,000; 10,000 / 1250 = 8 percent.

Decimal to Percent; Percent to Decimal

To convert a decimal value to a percent value is quite easy. All you need to do is multiply by 100. For example, 0.74 becomes 74 percent, after you multiply by 100. Or essay writing service plagiarism free don't even have to multiply by 100, you can simply move the decimal two places to the right. To convert a percent value to a decimal value is also rather simple. Just divide the number by 100. When divided by 100, 74 percent becomes 0.74. You can also just move the decimal point two spaces to the left, without dividing.

If you think that calculating percent and understanding percentages are skills that only apply in math class, think again. These skills, believe it or not, have applications in cheapest essay writing service. From income taxes to tipping waiters and waitresses, percentages play an important role in our lives. There is a lot to learn about percentages, but the information above should give you the basic foundation you need.

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