How do you you find the percentage?

Answer 1

This depends on what two numbers you have.

For example, a question might ask in this form "If a classroom has 18 boys and 12 girls, what is the percentage of boys?"

To work this out you need to add the boys and girls together so that you know the total number of children in the class... in this case 30. Next you multiply 18 by 100 and divide the result by 30

18 x 100 = 1800 - 1800 / 30 = 60%

In other cases the question might ask for a percentage of a number you are given "If there are 350 cars in a carpark, and 40% of them are red, how many cars of other colours are there in the carpark.

To work this out we need to either find out what 40% of 350 is and subtract it from 350, or we need to find out what 100% - 40% is and multiply that by 350.

350 x 40% = 350 x 0.4 = 140 - 350 - 140 = 190.

190 cars are not red.

or

100% - 40% = 60% - 350 x 60% = 350 x 0.6 = 190.