Percentages

In this section, we will learn about percentages. A percentage (also known as a percent) is a fraction whose denominator is one hundred. The literal meaning of a percent is "parts per hundred". Therefore five percent means: five parts per hundred. As an example, suppose a 100oz mixture contains 5oz of pure fruit juice. We could say this mixture is 5% fruit juice. The first operation we tackle in this section is to change a decimal into a percentage. To do this, we move our decimal point two places to the right and add a "%" (percentage) symbol. We can, of course, reverse this process if we need to go from a percentage to a decimal. To do this, we move our decimal point two places to the left and delete the "%" (percentage) symbol. Lastly, we cover the tedious process of converting a fraction into a percentage. There are two main ways to do this; the first is to write the fraction as an equivalent fraction where 100 is the denominator. Once this step is completed, we can use the numerator followed by the "%" (percentage) symbol. Otherwise, we must convert the fraction into a decimal, then convert the decimal into a percent.