How to find percentage of a number?

Before we begin, it is important to remember that a percentage is simply a number expressed as a fraction of 100. So, 5% means 5/100 = 0.05, 10% means 10/100 = 0.1. The numbers 0.05 and 0.1 doesn't mean anything as such by themselves.

Percentage of a number

Example 1: What is 10% of 500?

It means, what will be the value of 10 portions, if the number 500 were divided into 100 equal parts?

500 can be written as 5 × 100 = 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + ... + 5₁₀₀
Therefore, 10% of 500 = 5 × 10 = 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 50

Example 2: 25% of 10

10 can be written as 0.1 × 100 = 0.1 + 0.1 + 0.1 + 0.1 + ... + 0.1₁₀₀
Therefore, 25% of 10 = 0.1 × 25 = 0.1 + 0.1 + 0.1 + 0.1 + ... + 0.1₂₅ = 2.5

As can be seen, the above results can be arrived at by multiplying the percentage with the given number:

Example 1: 10/100 × 500 = 50
Example 2: 25/100 × 10 = 2.5

So, to calculate p% of number x, we divide p by 100 and multiply the result with x.

How To

How to find percentage of a number?

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