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I am horrible at percentages and I keep getting 15.805% as the answer to the question posed in the title, but according to others that is wrong and the answer is 6.33%. I can't wrap my head around this. Can someone please help to explain it? Thanks.:)

Edit: I got 15.805% by taking 316.1 and dividing it by 20. I thought it was the right way because I then took 20 and multiplied it by 15.805 to get 316.1

Aleenik
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3 Answers3

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The percent value is computed by multiplying the numeric value of the ratio by 100. To find 20 million as a percentage of 318.1 millions, first compute the ratio $20/316.1$, and then multiply by 100 $$ \frac{20}{316.1}\times 100=6.33\% $$

alexjo
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  • Just a slightly different take. When I teach percentages I define $%:=\frac{1}{100}$. Then $100%=1$ so to convert to percentage you just multiply by one aka $100%$. – JP McCarthy Dec 01 '14 at 09:54
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You can use the formulas and formulations that have already been given in the other answers. But trying to explain it intuitively:

You have a certain amount, which is called "$100\%$". Then you can compute what "$1\%$" is, by dividing the original amount by $100$. In your example, you have $316.1$, which is $100\%$, and you can divide it by $100$ to obtain $3.161$, which is $1\%$.

Now, you want to know "how many of these $1\%$'s do fit into $20$?".

So you can compute $20 / 3.161$, and see that the result is $6.33\%$

(I always wondered why "calculating with percentages" was taught like it was different from "normal" calculations. It is not. It's just breaking everything down into hundredths...)

Marco13
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Write $x\cdot316.1\cdot10^6=20\cdot10^6$. Now you should solve it for $x$. You will get $$x=\dfrac{20\cdot10^6}{316.1\cdot10^6}\approx0.0632711\approx6.33\%$$