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SAMPLE OF PERCENT UNIT
DEFINITION OF PERCENT
Imagine an object, either a shape or a number. Now imagine breaking that object up into 100 smaller pieces. Guess what? You just performed a percentage problem.
The object that I just referred to, in its entirety, is called the base. Each piece is one-hundredth of this base. We could say each piece is one percent of the base. I'm about to illustrate this concept for you, but first I need to introduce the "%" symbol.
"%" means percent, and as I just wrote 1% = 1/100 of the base. The base itself constitutes 100%.
In the diagram below you will see a rectangle broken into 100 equal squares.
The entire rectangle would be considered the base (i.e. 100% of the rectangle is the rectangle). Each square makes up 1/100 of this rectangle, thus it could be said each square is 1% of the rectangle.
In this next illustration you'll notice that 10 of the squares are colored red.
The red squares constitute 10 parts out of the total 100. Therefore the amount of red squares is 10% of the rectangle.
Frequently we use percents with numbers. In that case the number that we are taking the "percent of" will be considered as the base.
Let's say I wanted to know 25% of 1200.
Here 1200 is the base (i.e. 100% of 1200 is 1200)
Each percent would be one-hundredth of 1200.
1200/100 = 12 so 1% of 1200 is 12.
We could write 1% = 12
However, here I'm not interested in 1%, I'm interested in 25%
25% represents 25-hundredths of 1200, so if 1% = 12, then 25% would equal 25 x 12
25 x 12 = 300
25% of 1200 is 300
Let's say I wanted to know 40% of 150.
Here 150 is the base (i.e. 100% of 150 is 150)
Each percent would be 1/100 of 150.
So 1% = 150/100 = 1 1/2 (or if you prefer 1.5)
40% represents 40/100 of 150, so if 1% = 1 1/2, then 40% would equal 40 x 1 1/2 = 60
40% of 150 is 60
All images, text, and source code c2003 Martin Selditch
