# What is Percent

So, what is percent?

For "percent" we use symbol "%".

"Percent" means "per hundred".

In other words 1% can be written as fraction 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 20/100=1/5. In decimal notation it is 0.2.

So, 20%=1/5=0.2.

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

Percents and fractions are related in following way: p%=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%=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%=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.