What is Percent

So, what is percent?

For "percent" we use a symbol "%".

"Percent" means "per hundred".

In other words $$${1}\%$$$ can be written as fraction $$$\frac{{1}}{{100}}$$$ or decimal $$${0.01}$$$.

So, if you have a cake and you divide it into 100 pieces. Then 1% of the cake is 1 piece.

Now, what is $$${20}\%$$$? Similarly, you divide a cake into 100 pieces and take 20 pieces. In fraction notation it can be written as $$$\frac{{20}}{{100}}=\frac{{1}}{{5}}$$$. In decimal notation it is $$${0.2}$$$.

So, $$${20}\%=\frac{{1}}{{5}}={0.2}$$$.

Now, we can see how percent and fraction are related.

Percents and fractions are related in following way: $$${p}\%=\frac{{p}}{{100}}$$$.

Now, let's get back to the whole cake. If cake is divided into 100 pieces and you take all 100 pieces then you take $$${100}\%=\frac{{100}}{{100}}={1}$$$, i.e. whole cake.

We often take some things (cake or pocket money) to be $$${100}\%$$$ (or 1). After this we easily can calculate percent.

Now, what if we have 2 cakes and a half (in other words $$${2.5}$$$ cakes)?

First cake contains 100 pieces, second cake contains 100 pieces and half of cake contains 50 pieces. Total of 250 pieces.

So, it is 250 out of 100 pieces or $$${250}\%=\frac{{250}}{{100}}={2.5}$$$.

Sometimes you can hear: "I want you to give 150% out there". If you did your best, that would be your whole effort. So, that would be 100% of you effort. 150% is just impossible. People say so to make you work even harder that you ever have before.