When you think about percents, you might think about shopping. When an item is "on sale,"
that usually means that the original price has been reduced by a percentage.
But what is a percent? Basically, it's part of a whole. More specifically, it's one
part out of a hundred. If you want to write out "twenty-five percent" or 25 parts
of 100, it would look like this. The percent sign is written to the right of the percent number.
If a 100 dollar bicycle is now on sale for 25 percent off, that means you'll save 25
percent of 100 dollars, or 25 dollars. To find out the sale price, subtract the amount
you save -- 25 dollars -- from the original price -- 100 dollars -- to get a difference
of 75 dollars.
Let's try a different problem. Say you eat out and your bill is $10, and you want to
leave a 20% tip. Since money is written in the form of a decimal, converting 20% into
a decimal can help you figure out how much to tip.
Although you can't see the decimal point right now, it's understood to be at the
right of the percent. Move the decimal point two places to the left to get .20, the decimal
form of 20%. Now multiply your bill by .20 to get $2, the tip.
These are the basics of percents!
