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Solving percent problems

We'll use algebra to solve this percent problem. Created by Sal Khan and Monterey Institute for Technology and Education.

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  • duskpin sapling style avatar for user edgel26
    The way I thought of it was that you multiply 150 times 4, knowing that 25% is 1/4 of 100% soooo by doing this we would find the number that 150 would be 25% of. Is this right and did I confuse anyone? It was just the simplest way I thought of it
    (49 votes)
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  • duskpin sapling style avatar for user Riva
    Why can't You Just Do This~ (for the first Part) ;
    150 is 25% of what number?:
    25% is part of a whole 100%.*
    *25% is 1/4 of 100%*
    so, you know that (150) is 1/4 of the answer(100%)
    Add 150 - 4 times (Because we know that 25% X 4 = 100%)
    And that is equal to: (150 + 150 + 150 + 150) = *600
    .

    The method they used in the video is also correct, but i think that this one is easier, and will make it more simple to solve the rest of the question.
    (30 votes)
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  • area 52 blue style avatar for user Pranavi
    for example : 92% of a number is 56. how would i do this?
    (11 votes)
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    • stelly blue style avatar for user Kim Seidel
      There are 2 methods.
      1) Translation. The word "of" means multiply. The word "is" means "=". Translate: 92% of a number is 56
      You get: (92/100)x = 56 or as decimals 0.92x = 56
      Then solve for x.

      2) Proportion method. You will often see this described as "is" over "of" = "percent" over 100. The number associated with "is" in your problem is the 56. The number associated with "of" is the unknown value, so use "x". The "percent" is the 92%. This give you the proportional equation: 56/x = 92/100. You can cross-multiply, then divide to solve for x.

      Hope this helps.
      (8 votes)
  • blobby green style avatar for user Mohammad Junaid
    i dont understand, how does this relate to the exercise questions?
    (14 votes)
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  • old spice man green style avatar for user shyong33
    why cant you just change the 25% into decimal and the just divide with 150
    (10 votes)
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  • leafers tree style avatar for user PRODIGYC
    Unfortunately, I didn't find this video helpful.
    (10 votes)
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  • hopper cool style avatar for user Aedan L.
    At , how do you do what he's doing?
    (6 votes)
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    • starky ultimate style avatar for user тσχι¢.ρσтιση
      Do you know how division equations are the same thing as fractions? Well if you do then he converted the division equation into a fraction, so it will look like this 150/.25 but then he added a decimal and 2 zeroes after the decimal on the 150 so now the fraction was like this 150.00/.25 As you know the value doesn't change. Now in fractions, if you do the same thing to both the numerator and the denominator then the fraction can still be equivalent. So he moved the decimal 2 places to the right making the fraction 15000/25. After he did that he converted the fraction back into a division equation, and now he got 15000÷25 = ___. Hope this helped!
      (4 votes)
  • blobby green style avatar for user nursing.grace
    how do a solve a problem like this in a proportion form?
    (7 votes)
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  • stelly green style avatar for user Karthika
    A hockey set is coming for $7 and there is 25% off. What is the price of the hockey set with the discount?

    I got the answer as $5.25. Did I get it right
    (5 votes)
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  • winston default style avatar for user Christine Liu
    what happened to the decimal when you divided 150 and 0.25? aggggh why does sal demostrate with easy questions but then we get the hard onesssssss
    (5 votes)
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Video transcript

We're asked to identify the percent, amount, and base in this problem. And they ask us, 150 is 25% of what number? They don't ask us to solve it, but it's too tempting. So what I want to do is first answer this question that they're not even asking us to solve. But first, I want to answer this question. And then we can think about what the percent, the amount, and the base is, because those are just words. Those are just definitions. The important thing is to be able to solve a problem like this. So they're saying 150 is 25% of what number? Or another way to view this, 150 is 25% of some number. So let's let x, x is equal to the number that 150 is 25% of, right? That's what we need to figure out. 150 is 25% of what number? That number right here we're seeing is x. So that tells us that if we start with x, and if we were to take 25% of x, you could imagine, that's the same thing as multiplying it by 25%, which is the same thing as multiplying it, if you view it as a decimal, times 0.25 times x. These two statements are identical. So if you start with that number, you take 25% of it, or you multiply it by 0.25, that is going to be equal to 150. 150 is 25% of this number. And then you can solve for x. So let's just start with this one over here. Let me just write it separately, so you understand what I'm doing. 0.25 times some number is equal to 150. Now there's two ways we can do this. We can divide both sides of this equation by 0.25, or if you recognize that four quarters make a dollar, you could say, let's multiply both sides of this equation by 4. You could do either one. I'll do the first, because that's how we normally do algebra problems like this. So let's just multiply both by 0.25. That will just be an x. And then the right-hand side will be 150 divided by 0.25. And the reason why I wanted to is really it's just good practice dividing by a decimal. So let's do that. So we want to figure out what 150 divided by 0.25 is. And we've done this before. When you divide by a decimal, what you can do is you can make the number that you're dividing into the other number, you can turn this into a whole number by essentially shifting the decimal two to the right. But if you do that for the number in the denominator, you also have to do that to the numerator. So right now you can view this as 150.00. If you multiply 0.25 times 100, you're shifting the decimal two to the right. Then you'd also have to do that with 150, so then it becomes 15,000. Shift it two to the right. So our decimal place becomes like this. So 150 divided by 0.25 is the same thing as 15,000 divided by 25. And let's just work it out really fast. So 25 doesn't go into 1, doesn't go into 15, it goes into 150, what is that? Six times, right? If it goes into 100 four times, then it goes into 150 six times. 6 times 0.25 is-- or actually, this is now a 25. We've shifted the decimal. This decimal is sitting right over there. So 6 times 25 is 150. You subtract. You get no remainder. Bring down this 0 right here. 25 goes into 0 zero times. 0 times 25 is 0. Subtract. No remainder. Bring down this last 0. 25 goes into 0 zero times. 0 times 25 is 0. Subtract. No remainder. So 150 divided by 0.25 is equal to 600. And you might have been able to do that in your head, because when we were at this point in our equation, 0.25x is equal to 150, you could have just multiplied both sides of this equation times 4. 4 times 0.25 is the same thing as 4 times 1/4, which is a whole. And 4 times 150 is 600. So you would have gotten it either way. And this makes total sense. If 150 is 25% of some number, that means 150 should be 1/4 of that number. It should be a lot smaller than that number, and it is. 150 is 1/4 of 600. Now let's answer their actual question. Identify the percent. Well, that looks like 25%, that's the percent. The amount and the base in this problem. And based on how they're wording it, I assume amount means when you take the 25% of the base, so they're saying that the amount-- as my best sense of it-- is that the amount is equal to the percent times the base. Let me do the base in green. So the base is the number you're taking the percent of. The amount is the quantity that that percentage represents. So here we already saw the percent is 25%. That's the percent. The number that we're taking 25% of, or the base, is x. The value of it is 600. We figured it out. And the amount is 150. This right here is the amount. The amount is 150. 150 is 25% of the base, of 600. The important thing is how you solve this problem. The words themselves, you know, those are all really just definitions.