Learning to calculate percentages is not that difficult.
The term percent
comes from Latin and means
"for every hundred".
So when you hear a statistic such as "10% of all people are left-handed" that
means, for every hundred people, 10 are left-handed.
Finding Percentages
You've heard the commercial
about "4 out of 5 dentists recommending sugarless gum..." so, what
percentage is this?
We need to find what four fifths of
one hundred is.
Using this formula:
(amount ÷ total) × 100 = percentage
we get:
4 ÷ 5 × 100 = .8 × 100 = 80%
Percentage problems fall into one of three categories and you are asked
to calculate one of 3 things (or variables) and
these problems are typically worded in one of 3 ways:
A ) 4 is what percent of 5 ?
B ) 80 percent of 5 equals what number ?
C ) 4 is 80 percent of what number ?
In order to use this calculator, first click the category (A, B or C),
then enter the numbers in the first and third boxes, then click CALCULATE.
Use the above 3 examples for practice.
Percentages get a little trickier when there are many variables involved. Example In an election 2,268 people voted for Smith, 8,820
people voted for Jones and 1,512 people voted for Robinson. What percentage
of the votes did each candidate receive?
First, we have to get a total of ALL the votes.
2,268 + 8,820 + 1,512 = 12,600
Then we can calculate percentages for each candidate by:
(2,268 ÷ 12,600) × 100 = 18%
(8,820 ÷ 12,600) × 100 = 70%
(1,512 ÷ 12,600) × 100 = 12%
These type of percentage calculations are made easier by
using this calculator which allows you to input up to 10 numbers.
When you click
CALCULATE, it will display the percentages of each amount. As an added
bonus, the total and average will be displayed. For practice, you could
use the election example above.