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Writing Fractions as Percents |
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Unit 4 |
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Problem:
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Last marking period, Ms. Jones gave an A grade to 15 out of every 100 students and Mr. McNeil gave
an A grade to 3 out of every 20 students. What
percent
of each teacher's students received an A?
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| Solution |
| Teacher |
Ratio |
Fraction |
Percent |
| Ms. Jones |
15 to 100 |
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15% |
| Mr. McNeil |
3 to 20 |
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15% |
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Solution:
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Both teachers gave 15% of their students an A last marking period.
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In the problem above, the fraction for Ms. Jones was easily converted to a percent. This is because
It is easy to convert a fraction to a percent when the
denominator
is 100. If a fraction does not have a denominator of 100, you can convert it to an
equivalent fraction
with a denominator of 100, and then write the equivalent fraction as a percent. This is what was done in the problem above for Mr. McNeil. Let's look at
some problems in which we use equivalent fractions to help us convert a fraction to a percent.
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Example 1:
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Write each fraction as a percent:
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| Solution |
| Fraction |
Equivalent Fraction |
Percent |
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50% |
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90% |
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80% |
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Example 2:
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One team won 19 out of every 20 games played, and a second team won 7 out of
every 8 games played. Which team has a higher percentage of wins?
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| Solution |
| Team |
Fraction |
Equivalent Fraction |
Percent |
| 1 |
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95% |
| 2 |
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87.5% |
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Solution:
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The first team has a higher percentage of wins.
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In Examples 1 and 2, we used equivalent fractions to help us convert each fraction to a percent.
Another way to do this is to convert each fraction to a decimal, and then convert each decimal to a percent.
To convert a fraction to a decimal, divide its
numerator
by its
denominator.
Look at Example 3 below to see how this is done.
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Example 3:
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Write each fraction as a percent:
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| Solution |
| Fraction |
Decimal |
Percent |
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87.5% |
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95% |
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1.5% |
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Now that you are familiar with writing fractions as percents, do you see a pattern in the problem below?
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Problem:
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If 165% equals
,
and 16.5% equals ,
then what fraction is equal to 1.65%?
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| Solution |
| Percent |
Fraction |
| 165% |
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| 16.5% |
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| 1.65% |
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Summary:
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To write a fraction as a percent, we can convert it to an equivalent fraction with a denominator of 100.
Another way to write a fraction as a percent is to divide its numerator by its denominator,
then convert the resulting decimal to a percent.
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Exercises
Directions: Read each question below. Select your answer by clicking on its button. Feedback to your answer
is provided in the RESULTS BOX. If you make a mistake, choose a different button.
1. Which of the following is equal to 36%
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2. Which of the following is equal to 62.5%?
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3. Which of the following is equal to
?
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4. Which of the following is equal to
?
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5. What fraction is equal to .42%?
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