• thisfro@slrpnk.net
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    1 year ago

    They probably did, just not explicitly:

    You could write (6*1/100)*50 = 6*(50*1/100)

    It only uses the commutative property of multiplication and the fact that % is another way of writing 1/100.

    Maybe also worth remembering that “x% of y” is just x/100*y

      • Ravi@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        The word percent is exactly that per cent, which basically means parts of hundred. E.g. 10% are 10 of 100, or 60% are 60 of 100. You can also write this mathematically as 60/100 or 60÷100, which is 0.6.

        Now in general: x% are x parts of 100 or x/100 or x÷100. If you want to calculate x% of y you just multiply it: y × x% = y × x ÷ 100.

    • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I totally remember being taught this. It’s just way easier to break down percentages in terms of the nearest 1% or 10% times the number in the percent times the number you’re taking the percentage of. You don’t have to do the math for the 1 or 10 percentage as long as you remember that a 10% means move the decimal left once and 1% means move the decimal left twice. The rest is just basic multiplication.

      40% of 59 = 10% of 59 times 4.

      So…

      4x59=236

      or

      (4x50=200) + (4x9=36)= 236

      10% means move the decimal left once,

      Therefore 40% of 59 is 23.6

      With that you can easily do more complex percentages mentally like…

      62% of 35 = 10% of 35 times 6 plus 1% of 35 times 2.

      35x6=180+30=210 at 10% so 21

      plus

      35x2=60+10=70 at 1% so 0.7

      Therefore 62% of 35 = 21.7

      • _cnt0@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        While I get your sentiment, I’m always baffled how people fail to just memorize some basic formulas/equations and then just to plug and play:

        1÷kⁿ = k⁻ⁿ

        % = 1÷100 = 10⁻²

        k×10ⁿ equals k with its floating point shifted by n to the right for positive n, or to the left for negative n

        That’s really all one needs to know for the “problem” at hand. For your concrete example of “40% of 59” that would just be

        59×40×10⁻²

        Just solve that whatever way is easiest. I don’t get why people get panic-stricken when they see the % sign.