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Converting percents to decimals & fractions example

Converting percentages to decimals and fractions is a fundamental math skill. To convert 18% into a decimal, simply divide by 100, resulting in 0.18. To express it as a simplified fraction, find the greatest common factor, which in this case is 2, and divide both the numerator and denominator by it, giving us 9/50. Created by Sal Khan and Monterey Institute for Technology and Education.

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  • mr pants teal style avatar for user Connor Eason
    how do make percents into fractions
    (39 votes)
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    • blobby green style avatar for user Tim Daugherty
      Hi Connor - I like to think of a "percent" as a "fraction of 100". For example, 80% is the same thing as the fraction 80/100.

      Once you have your fraction of 100, you can then simplify it. In this case, both 80 and 100 are divisible by 10, so 80/100 would equal 8/10. And since in this fraction, both 8 and 10 are divisible by 2, you can simplify it to 4/5. So that's how you can convert a percent into a fraction.
      (63 votes)
  • starky sapling style avatar for user eman.150839
    um does anyone answer these anymore?
    (23 votes)
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  • starky seedling style avatar for user Hayley Parente
    What would 4% equal? I'm stuck. (Don't judge me I am horrible at these 😂)
    (15 votes)
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    • starky ultimate style avatar for user SFLD (Edu.)
      What are you looking for, Fraction Form, or Decimal Form? Don't worry, I'll answer both.
      4% is 4/100, which if we divide by 4, would equal 1/25 in Fraction Form. In decimal form, it would be 0.04, since 1 would equal 100% in this case and 0.04 is 4% of one.
      Hope this answered your question, Hayley!
      (4 votes)
  • spunky sam blue style avatar for user SamsOreoCookies
    Honestly, I used to get so worried when trying to do percentage problems. But once I actually do them now, its really simple!
    (19 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Miriam Smith-Elliott
    How to change .08 to a fraction
    (7 votes)
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  • starky tree style avatar for user hianit18
    What if, when you are trying to convert a fraction to a percentage but the denominator is not a factor of 100? How do you do it?
    (3 votes)
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    • purple pi purple style avatar for user Sam De Laurentis
      The following assumes you are asking to perform all calculations manually.
      One way to do it is to perform long division to convert the fraction to a decimal, then you can multiply the decimal by 100 to get a percentage. This assumes you know how to perform long division with decimals in the quotient and the dividend.
      For example, if the fraction is 5/16, you could use long division to get a decimal answer to 5 divided by 16 and then multiply that by 100.
      Another method is to multiply the fraction by 100 first to get 500/16 then perform long division to get a straight percentage.
      If you don't know how to do long division with decimals in the quotient and dividend then using a calculator is probably the best option. (I would use a calculator in this case anyway even though I know long division)
      Using a calculator it is as easy as entering 5 / 16 and either pressing the percent key or multiplying by 100.
      (15 votes)
  • duskpin seed style avatar for user Korinn Leonard
    can't you just put 18 over 100 then simplify to get your answer?
    (5 votes)
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  • male robot hal style avatar for user Owen Sterling
    what 22/25 of per cent of %
    (6 votes)
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  • winston baby style avatar for user Drake
    at Write 18% as a decimal and as a fraction in simplest form. So let's do it as a decimal first. So 18% is the same thing as 18 per 100, or 18 per cent. I'm actually separating out the percent, it's only going to be one word, but I'm writing it as, literally, per cent. Cent means the same thing as 100. So this literally means 18 per 100. Actually, I said I would do the decimal first, but we can start putting it into a fraction first. 18 per 100 as a fraction literally means 18/100. We're literally doing the fraction first. This literally means 18 per 100, or 18 hundredths. From here we can go straight to a decimal or we could do this fraction in simplest form. Let's do the decimal first, just because that's actually what I said I would do first. Let's do that first. This is the same thing as 18 hundredths. And we know how to write that in decimal form. It's 0.18. You could view this as 1 tenth and 8 hundredths, which is the same thing, or 10 hundredths and 8 hundredths, which is 18 hundredths. So this is written in decimal form. And if we write it as a simplified fraction, we need to see if there is a common factor for 18 and 100. And they're both even numbers, so we know they're both divisible by 2, so let's divide both the numerator and the denominator by 2. So we have 18 divided by 2 over 100 divided by 2. And we're going to get 18 divided by 2 is 9. 100 divided by 2 is 50. And I don't think these guys share any common factors. 50 is not divisible by 3. 9 is only divisible by 3 and 1 and 9. So this is the fraction in simplest form. So we have 18% is the same thing as 0.18, which is the same thing, in simplest form, as 9/50. Now, I went through a lot of pain here to show you that this really just comes from the word, from percent, from per 100. But if you ever were to see this in a problem, the fast way to do this is to immediately say, OK, if I have 18%, you should immediately say, anything in front of the percent-- that's that anything, whatever this anything is-- it should be equal to that anything. In this case it's 18/100. And another way to think about it, you could view this as 18.0%. I just added a trailing zero there, just so that you see the decimal, really. But if you want to express this as a decimal without the percent, you just move the decimal to the left two spaces. So if we move the decimal to the left two spaces, one, two, this becomes 0.18. Or you could immediately say that 18% as a fraction is 18/100. When you put it in simplified form, it's 9/50. But you should also see that 18/100, and we have seen this, is the exact same thing as 18 hundredths, or 0.18. Hopefully, this made some connections for you and didn't confuse you.
    (4 votes)
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  • leafers seedling style avatar for user Emmy Inlaw
    how do you convert a fraction to a percent
    (2 votes)
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Video transcript

Write 18% as a decimal and as a fraction in simplest form. So let's do it as a decimal first. So 18% is the same thing as 18 per 100, or 18 per cent. I'm actually separating out the percent, it's only going to be one word, but I'm writing it as, literally, per cent. Cent means the same thing as 100. So this literally means 18 per 100. Actually, I said I would do the decimal first, but we can start putting it into a fraction first. 18 per 100 as a fraction literally means 18/100. We're literally doing the fraction first. This literally means 18 per 100, or 18 hundredths. From here we can go straight to a decimal or we could do this fraction in simplest form. Let's do the decimal first, just because that's actually what I said I would do first. Let's do that first. This is the same thing as 18 hundredths. And we know how to write that in decimal form. It's 0.18. You could view this as 1 tenth and 8 hundredths, which is the same thing, or 10 hundredths and 8 hundredths, which is 18 hundredths. So this is written in decimal form. And if we write it as a simplified fraction, we need to see if there is a common factor for 18 and 100. And they're both even numbers, so we know they're both divisible by 2, so let's divide both the numerator and the denominator by 2. So we have 18 divided by 2 over 100 divided by 2. And we're going to get 18 divided by 2 is 9. 100 divided by 2 is 50. And I don't think these guys share any common factors. 50 is not divisible by 3. 9 is only divisible by 3 and 1 and 9. So this is the fraction in simplest form. So we have 18% is the same thing as 0.18, which is the same thing, in simplest form, as 9/50. Now, I went through a lot of pain here to show you that this really just comes from the word, from percent, from per 100. But if you ever were to see this in a problem, the fast way to do this is to immediately say, OK, if I have 18%, you should immediately say, anything in front of the percent-- that's that anything, whatever this anything is-- it should be equal to that anything. In this case it's 18/100. And another way to think about it, you could view this as 18.0%. I just added a trailing zero there, just so that you see the decimal, really. But if you want to express this as a decimal without the percent, you just move the decimal to the left two spaces. So if we move the decimal to the left two spaces, one, two, this becomes 0.18. Or you could immediately say that 18% as a fraction is 18/100. When you put it in simplified form, it's 9/50. But you should also see that 18/100, and we have seen this, is the exact same thing as 18 hundredths, or 0.18. Hopefully, this made some connections for you and didn't confuse you.