Practicing Percentages!

by Dori Lansbach

Knowledge Check:
In order to be great at practicing percentages, we must first have a general understanding of decimals and place value! A decimal is a little dot that separates whole numbers from non-whole numbers. For example, if we have the number 23.5, the whole number would be on the left (23) and the non-whole number would be on the right (.5). The non-whole number also represents a fraction.

Understanding Place Value

What Is A Percent and Why Is It Important?

A percent is just another way to identify a part of a whole. Per cent means per hundred so anytime you see a percent you know that you can make the number into a fraction of 100. The percent will be the numerator, and 100 will be the denominator. Percents are everywhere! We use them with store sales, taxes, and when your parents tip waiters at restaurants.

The Basics of Percentages

Lets look at 25%. We know that 25% = 25/100. In this drawing we can see what 25% looks like. The boxes shaded in represent the 25% and mean 25 per 100. Now you shade in 10% in this box.

A percent can also be expressed as a decimal or fraction. A half of a pizza can be written as 50%, 1/2 as a fraction, or 0.5 as a decimal.

Changing Percents to Decimals

The next basic part we need to know about percentages is how to change them to decimals. We will look at this example to learn how. Percent Move Decimal Decimal 25% 25. .25 50% 50. .50 72.5% 725. .725 Steps: 1.) Remove the percent sign. 2.) Look at number that had the percent sign and imagine there is a decimal on the left side of the number. 3.) Move the decimal two places to the right, and you have your decimal. (Add a 0 if there arent two places to move). If we were converting decimals to percentages the steps would be the same, except that you would add a percent sign instead of removing one, imagine a decimal on the right side of the number versus the left, and move the decimal two places to the left instead of to the right. Now convert the percent to a decimal with 30% and 55.5%.

Calculating Percentages
When you go shopping its often helpful to be able to calculate percentages to figure out how much money you can save. Here is an example of finding the percentage of a certain amount of money: 60% of $50 is $30. Lets learn how to calculate percentages like these with a few easy steps. Steps: 1.) Change the percent to a decimal. (60% becomes .60, then drop the 0.) 2.) Multiply the decimal by the whole number in the problem. (.6 x 50) 3.) Dont forget to move over to the left the same number of decimal places in your answer). (.6 x 50 = 30.0 or 30.) Now we can see that 60% of $50 is $30.

Calculating Sale Prices

Now we can find out what the sale price of a certain item in a store would be. For example, an iPhone costs $200, but now its on sale for 20% off. What is the sale price?

Steps: 1.) Calculate the percentage using the same steps from above. (.2 x 200 = 40.) 2.) Take the regular price and subtract your answer from step 1. (200-40 = 160). We can see that by buying the iPhone at 20% off, you would then only have to pay $160.

Challenging Application Problem

Your family just took you out to eat at your favorite place, Pinks Hot Dogs. You and your family ate a lot of hot dogs and rang up a bill of $35! Its time to tip the waiter and your mom whips out her iPhone to calculate the tip, but wait! No need for a tip calculator when you know how to do it yourself. Show your mom how to tip the waiter 15% after spending $35. Hint: Follow the same steps for calculating a percentage.