Percents Less Than 1 or Greater Than 100

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Percents Less Than 1
or Greater Than 100

Unit 4 > Lesson 6 of 9

Problem 1:	Glosser Grade School has an enrollment of 400 students. Only % of students ride their bicycles to school each day. How many students is this?
	We know from previous lessons how to write a percent as a decimal by moving the decimal point two places to the left. So we get the following:
	If = 0.5, then % = 0.5%, and 0.5% =.005. Thus we get % = .005
	Going back to our original problem, we get: .005 of 400 = .005 x 400 = 2
Solution:	2 students ride their bicycle to school each day.

Problem 2:	This year, enrollment at Glosser Grade school is 150% of last year. How many students are enrolled now?
	Writing 150% as a decimal, we get: 150% = 1.50 = 1.5
	1.5 of 400 = 1.5 x 400 = 600
Solution:	600 students are now enrolled at Glosser Grade School.

In Problem 1, we were asked to work with a percent less than 1, and in Problem 2, we were asked to work with a percent greater than 100. When working with percents less than 1 and greater than 100, we follow the same rules that we learned for percents between 1 to 100. Let's look at some examples.

Example 1:

Write each percent as a decimal:

%, 1.8%, 0.32%, 235%

Since

= 0.4, we get

% = 0.4%

Solution
Percent	Decimal
0.4%	0.004
1.8%	0.018
0.32%	0.0032
235%	2.35

In example 1, note that instead of writing .32%, we used 0.32%. The leading zero reminds us that this number is between 0 and 1 percent. Let's look at some more examples.

Example 2:

Write each percent as a fraction in lowest terms: 0.42%, 395%, 0.07%

Solution
Percent	Decimal	Fraction	Lowest Terms
0.42%	0.0042
395%	3.95	3	3
0.07%	0.0007

Example 3: Write each decimal as a percent:    12.2,    0.00459,    1.2765

Solution

Decimal Percent

12.2           1,220%.0000

0.00459      0.459%

1.2765   127.65%0

Summary:

When working with percents less than 1 and greater than 100 (special percents), we follow the same rules that we learned for percents between 1 and 100. In this lesson, we applied these rules to help us make conversions between fractions, decimals and special percents.

Exercises

Directions: Read each question below. Select your answer by clicking on its button. Immediate feedback is provided in the RESULTS BOX. If you make a mistake, choose a different button.

1. Which of the following is equal to 190%?

      190.0

      19.0

      1.90

      None of the above.

      RESULTS BOX: