BASIC STUFF ON HOW PERCENTAGES WORK

WHAT IS A PERCENTAGE?
A percentage is the top part of a fraction whose bottom part is 100.
So 50% means 'half of' and 25% means 'a quarter of'. 100% means the
complete quantity.

WHY BOTHER WITH THEM?

Percentages are useful because they make it very easy to compare things.
For example, suppose the marks in two successive tests are 67/80 and 51/60.
It is not very easy to say which of these was best.
Percentages use our ordinary number system of 10's, 100's etc and, because
they are out of 100 rather than 10, we avoid a lot of the decimal points which
make some people twitchy.

CHANGING A FRACTION TO A PERCENTAGE

Taking the example of the test mark of 67 out of 80,

Multiplying both sides of this equation by 100 gives us

RULE:- to change a fraction to a percentage, multiply it by 100.

Question:- What is the second test mark of 51/60 as a %? Try this yourself
before looking.
Answer

so the mark in the second test was higher.

I've had some emails asking for help to turn a single number into a
percentage. It can't be done! You have to know as a percentage of what.
For example, a drinks bill of 20 for a party costing 80 in total means that the
drinks cost 20/80 or 1/4 or 25% of the total. The 20 on its own can't be
turned into a percentage.

CHANGING A PERCENTAGE TO A FRACTION

RULE:- You simply turn it into a fraction by writing it over 100.
Then cancel down if possible.
Example:- What is 35% as a fraction?

cancelling down to the simplest form by dividing the top and bottom by 5 in
this instance.
Question: What is 45.5% as a fraction?

*** Remember that the value of a fraction remains unchanged when you
multiply or divide both the top and the bottom by the same number. ***

CHANGING A DECIMAL TO A PERCENTAGE

Dead easy, this one!
Suppose we want to write 0.27 as a %. Since a decimal is a kind of fraction,
all we have to do is to multiply by 100. You just need to remember that each
time you multiply by 10 the number becomes larger by a factor of 10 so the
decimal point moves one place to the right. Multiplying by 100 moves it 2
places to the right. This neat rule is because decimals are fractions in our
base ten number system.
So we find that 0.27 is the same as (0.27 x 100)% = 27%.
Similarly, 0.735 is the same as (0.735 x 100)% = 73.5%
and 7.46 is the same as (7.46 x 100)% = 746%.
RULE:- To change a decimal to a % we multiply by 100 which just moves
the decimal point 2 places to the right.

CHANGING A PERCENTAGE TO A DECIMAL

(Again, dead easy!)
RULE:- All we have to do is to divide by 100, so move the decimal point
2 places to the left.
Here are 3 examples to show you how to deal with all possible snags.
Example (1) What is 37% as a decimal?
Answer:- 37% is the same as 0.37.
Example (2) What is 25.5% as a decimal?
Answer:- 25.5% is the same as 0.255.
(Notice that the percentage had a decimal point in here too.)
Example (3) What is 50% as a decimal?
Answer:- 50% is the same as 0.50 = 0.5
(The last zero just tells us that there is nothing in the 2nd position after the
decimal point, so we can leave it out.)

PERCENTAGE INCREASES AND DECREASES

The easiest way to explain how to work these out is to look at some
examples.
Example (1)
Suppose the profits of a certain company go from 365 000 in January to
425 000 in February. What is the % increase in their profits?
RULE:- Percentage increases and decreases are always calculated with
respect to the value before the change took place.
Here, the actual increase in profits is 425 000 - 365 000 = 60 000.
The % profit is ... 60 000 expressed as a percentage of 365 000

Example (2)
The number of first year students at a certain university studying Law was 127
in 1996 and 114 in 1997. What was the % decrease?

The actual decrease is 127 - 114 = 13.

The % decrease is 13 expressed as a percentage of 127.
13 as a fraction of 127 is 13/127.
Now, just multiply by 100 so you get

Example (3)
The price of a certain model of car goes up by 8%. It used to cost 7,800.
What will it cost in future?
There are two ways of finding this.
Method (1)
First find the actual increase in cost. This is 8% of 7 800 so it is

Therefore the new price is 7 800 + 624 = 8 424.

Method (2)
This is the all-in-one complete way of doing it.
The price has increased by 8% so we then add this increase to the 100%
value of the car as it is now. Hence 100% + 8% = 108%
Therefore the new price is 108% of the old one, so it is

Example (4)
At the beginning of December, the price of a certain item is increased by 5%
to make a bigger Christmas profit.
At the beginning of January, there is a Sale and the unsold items are labelled
5% OFF!
Would you now be paying the same as if you had bought the item in
November? If not, would you be paying more or less?
Have a go at answering this before looking.
Suppose it cost 100 in November.
Then in December the price increased by 5% to 105.
The Sale Price is now calculated as a reduction of 5% on this current price of
105.
So, using method (1), the actual reduction in price is

Therefore you would only pay 105 - 5.25 = 99.75. You would get it
cheaper in January than you would have done if you had bought it in
November.

Example (5)
A certain computer store reckons to make 30% profit on each gizmo that it
sells. If the selling price of a particular gizmo is 1,560 what was the cost
price to the dealer?

DANGER! The 30% profit is on the cost price of the gizmo. So we don't want
to find 30% of 1,560.
We know that the selling price of 1,560 is 130% of the cost price since the
dealer is making a profit of 30% on the cost price. So we can say

We can rearrange the equation to get the cost price

Cost price = 1,560 x 100
`130
Therefore the cost price to the dealer was 156,000/130 = 1,200
.

Now multiply both sides of this equation by 100 and divide both sides by 130.
This gives

since the two right-hand fractions cancel each other out.

Example (6)
In a sale, there is a rack of coats marked "All prices in this rack are reduced
by 20%!". The one I choose now has a price of 120. How much did it cost
before the sale?

The working is very similar to the previous example. We know that 120 is
80% of the original selling price since 20% has been taken off this price. This
time we'll save some writing in the equations by calling the original selling
price P. Then we have

Now, multiplying both sides of this equation by 100 and dividing both sides by
80, we have

So the original selling price was 12 000/80 = 150.

A little bit of algebra saves a lot of writing!

Example (7)
People have found difficulty here when they needed to work backwards from
a bill whose total includes VAT (value added tax) at 17.5% to find out what the
bill would have been before the VAT was added.
The easiest way to explain how this is done is to take an actual example.
Suppose that a bill which includes VAT comes to 1,602.70. We want to know
what the amount was before VAT was added.
DANGER You can't work out this answer by finding 17.5% of 1,602.70 and
then taking it off. The reason for this is that the 17.5% is of the original amount
of the bill and not the final 1,602.70.
We'll save writing by calling the amount before VAT was added C.
Then, working in , we know that

The total of the bill before VAT was added was 1,364.
We can make a general rule for this if we let P stand for the total of the bill
including VAT at 17.5%.
We want to find C, the amount of the bill before VAT was added.
Using the same argument as above, we get

RULE:- To find the amount of a bill before VAT at 17.5% was added,
multiply the amount including VAT by 100 and divide the result by 117.5.
The working here is similar to Example (5) above but VAT seems to create
special difficulties.

You can practise all the percentage rules now by working out the answers to
some problems yourself.
Here are some questions for you to have a go at. Try to do them without
looking back at the individual rules. (Have a quick check through before you
start if you want.)
(1) Change the following fractions to percentages giving any non-exact
answers correct to 1 d.p.
(a)3/4
(b)1/3
(c)3/8
(d)17/25
(e)4/9
(2) Change the following percentages to fractions, simplifying them by
cancelling down if possible.
(a)20%
(b)37%
(c)2.5%
(d)0.05%
(e)72.5%
(3) Change the following decimals into percentages.
(a)0.5
(b)0.25
(c)0.07
(d)3.5
(e)0.0025
(4) Change the following percentages into decimals.
(a)60%
(b)10.5%
(c)102%
(d)2.5%
(e)0.05%
(5) A certain computer is advertised on the Web at a price of 1,099 excluding
VAT. If VAT is added at 17.5% what price will you actually have to pay?
(6) Some Christmas cards are marked down in January from 3.99 a pack to
2.65 a pack. What is the % reduction?
(7) Suppose you pay 45 for a jumper in a Sale where everything is labelled
20% OFF! What was the original price of the jumper?

Questions which involve interpreting data

Finally, here are some examples of the kinds of question which can come up
on numerical aptitude tests. You need to be able to extract the right
information to answer the question which you are asked. Also, you need to be
quick and accurate in doing this as these tests are timed. Of course, these
abilities are also necessary in real-life situations.
Some questions will involve using percentages. Also, some questions can't be
answered from the data you have been given. Again, this is sometimes the
case both in aptitude tests and in real life! It is always important to collect the
right data in the first place if you need to answer specific questions concerned
with managing your company.
Example (1)
Sales of KUDOS cars in the year 1999 at the Grizwold garage
Model

Price excl.
VAT

Number
sold

Cost price
to garage

Total cost
from faults

Number of
faults

Kuddly

6,500

846

5,000

16,560

218

Knight

11,000

612

8,000

11,800

165

Kaptain

16,000

402

12,000

9,720

112

Korker

14,600

298

10,500

5,500

62

(1) Which model of car gives the greatest % gross profit on each sale?
(A)Kuddly .
(B)Knight .
(C)Kaptain .
(D)Korker .
(E)Can't say
(2) On which model of car does the garage make the greatest gross profit on
its total sales?
(A)Kuddly .
(B)Knight .
(C)Kaptain .
(D)Korker .
(E)Can't say

(3) Some cars have faults which have to be put right under the Kudos
guarantee. Which model of car costs the garage the greatest average amount
per fault?
(A)Kuddly .
(B)Knight .
(C)Kaptain .
(D)Korker .
(E)Can't say
(4) Which model of car has the greatest proportion of cars brought back to
rectify faults?
(A)Kuddly .
(B)Knight .
(C)Kaptain .
(D)Korker .
(E)Can't say

Example (2)
It is not always easy to interpret what is meant when percentage changes are
quoted in newspaper articles. Here is an example of the kind of thing which
you might meet.
Research has revealed that air quality in Britain deteriorated in 1998 to its
worst level for a decade. The number of days on which pollution became
harmful to human health rose by 20% in towns and 50% in rural areas.
One of the worst affected areas saw a rise from 23 such days in 1997 to 60
days in 1998.
Decide which of the following statements is true, based on the data given
above.
(1) The % increase in the number of days with high pollution in the area
quoted was
(A)38.3% .
(B)260.9% .
(C)61.7% .
(D)160.9%
(2) Rural areas were becoming increasingly polluted faster than urban areas.
(A)True .
(B)False .
(C)Can't say
(3) Rural areas were more likely than urban areas to have dangerous levels of
pollution.
(A)True .
(B)False .
(C)Can't say.

Example (3)
This one is similar to the previous example.
Suppose you read the following statement in a newspaper.
Teenage smoking rates are still lower than in the 1970's. However, a recent
survey in a large city has revealed that the proportion of 16 year-olds who
smoke daily has jumped 8% since 1992 to 22% in 1999. Tragically, in this city
alone, this means that in 1999 there were an estimated 3 300 daily smokers in
this age group.
Decide which of the following statements are true based on the above
information.
(1) The number of 16 year-olds in this city in 1999 was about
(A)15 000 .
(B)12 000 .
(C)18 000
(2) The proportion of 16 year-olds who smoked daily in this city in 1992 was
(A)14% .
(B)36.4% .
(C)63.6% .
(D)20.4%

Example (4)
Chocblox plc have recently brought out two new sorts of chocolate bar, the
Nutchox and the Frutichox.
They sell Nutchox bars wholesale in boxes of 100 bars at 24 a box, and
Frutichox bars wholesale in boxes of 120 bars at 32 a box.
The launch was at the beginning of January 1999 and the sales figures for the
first 6 months are shown on the graph below. Use this graph to answer the
questions below it about the sales. (I've put the graph in again at the end of
the questions to save you some scrolling.)

(1) During how many months were an equal number of boxes of Nutchox and
Frutichox sold?
(A)None .
(B)One .
(C)Two .
(D)Three
(2) What percentage of the total number of boxes sold in May contained
Nutchox?
(A)60% .
(B)166.6% .
(C)62.5% .
(D)37.5%

(3) What percentage of the total number of individual bars sold in February
were Frutichox?
(A)33.3% .
(B)37.5% .
(C)50% .
(D)60%
(4) In which month were equal numbers of individual bars sold wholesale?
(A)March .
(B)April .
(C)May .
(D)June
(5) During how many months was more money received from Frutichox sales
than from Nutchox sales?
(A)None .
(B)One .
(C)Two .
(D)Three

From: http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~jenolive/percent.html