# Percent of a whole number

There are several different ways to solve problems involving percentages, decimals, and fractions. Watch as Sal finds the percentage of a whole number. Created by Sal Khan.
Video transcript
Let's see if we can figure out what 30% of 6 is. So one way of thinking about 30%-- this literally means 30 per 100. So you could view this as 30/100 times 6 is the same thing as 30% of 6. Or you could view this as 30 hundredths times 6, so 0.30 times 6. Now we could solve both of these, and you'll see that we'll get the same answer. If you do this multiplication right over here, 30/100-- and you could view this times 6/1-- this is equal to 180/100. And let's see. We can simplify. We can divide the numerator and the denominator by 10. And then we can divide the numerator and the denominator by 2. And we will get 9/5, which is the same thing as 1 and 4/5. And then if we wanted to write this as a decimal, 4/5 is 0.8. And if you want to verify that, you could verify that 5 goes into 4-- and there's going to be a decimal. So let's throw some decimals in there. It goes into 4 zero times. So we don't have to worry about that. It goes into 40 eight times. 8 times 5 is 40. Subtract. You have no remainder, and you just have 0's left here. So 4/5 is 0.8. You've got the 1 there. This is the same thing as 1.8, which you would have gotten if you divided 5 into 9. You would've gotten 1.8. So 30% of 6 is equal to 1.8. And we can verify it doing this way as well. So if we were to multiply 0.30 times 6-- let's do that. And I could just write that literally as 0.3 times 6. Well, 3 times 6 is 18. I have only one digit behind the decimal amongst both of these numbers that I'm multiplying. I only have the 3 to the right of the decimal. So I'm only going to have one number to the right of the decimal here. So I just count one number. It's going to be 1.8. So either way you think about it or calculate it, 30% of 6 is 1.8.