Scribd
Upload
60 views2 pages

Key Concepts: Percent of A Number

Key Concepts Fractions

Uploaded by

nearurheart1
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
60 views2 pages

Key Concepts: Percent of A Number

Key Concepts Fractions

Uploaded by

nearurheart1
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
You are on page 1/ 2

Lesson

Key Concepts 10-7


Percent of a Number
Objective Teach students what the percent of a number means and how
to compute it.

Note to the Teacher When computing a percent of a number, a


useful “trick” to point out to your students is that they should change
the percent to a fraction (or perhaps a decimal), and where they see
the word “of” in the percent problem, they should substitute a
multiplication symbol.

Do an example like the following to show how the procedure works.

Example 1 Akili and his mother went out to lunch and their bill was
$18. His mother said that she wanted to leave a 15% tip for
the waitress. How much she should leave as a tip?

Solution Since Akili’s mother wants to leave a 15% tip, she needs to
compute 15% of $18. Substituting a multiplication symbol for
the word “of” in the phrase “15% of $18” gives the
multiplication expression
15%  $18.
To find the value of this expression, recall that 15% can be
15 15
expressed as the fraction . Replacing 15% by  gives
100 100
15
15%  $18  
100
 $18
15  $18
 
100
$270
 
100
 $2.70

So, a 15% tip for an $18 bill is $2.70.

Point out that 15% is also equivalent to the decimal 0.15, which
alternately could have replaced 15% in the calculations shown in
Example 1 above.

Have your students do work on some sample problems on their own


or in small groups. Here are two more sample problems.

© Glencoe/McGraw-Hill 74 Lesson 10-7


Example 2 In a recent California state election, approximately
15,000,000 people voted. Of those casting ballots, 52%
voted in favor of Proposition A. How many people voted in
favor of Proposition A?

Solution We need to compute 52% of 15,000,000. Replace 52% with its


decimal equivalent 0.52. Then replace the word “of” with a
multiplication symbol.
52% of 15,000,000 → 0.52  15,000,000
Use a calculator.

0.52  15,000,000  7,800,000


So, 7,800,000 voters cast ballots in favor of Proposition A.

Example 3 In a recent study of cancer patients, it was found that


among a group of patients who contracted lung cancer,
35% survived at least 5 years after their diagnosis. A total
of 4,200 patients were involved in the study. How many of
the patients survived at least 5 years after diagnosis?

Solution In this problem we want to compute 35% of 4,200. We


translate this phrase into the multiplication 0.35  4,200.
0.35  4,200  1,470
So there were 1,470 patients involved in the study who
survived at least 5 years beyond diagnosis.

Note to the Teacher Calculating the percent of a number occurs in


many everyday circumstances, as shown in the examples presented
here. It is therefore an extremely important skill for students to learn.
Moreover, calculating the percent of a number exercises the students’
skills with multiplication of fractions and decimals. To make sure
students master these skills, they should be given lots of problems to
work, not only word problems like those in the examples, but also
basic calculations like those in the following exercises.

Exercises
Find the percent of each number.
1. 15% of 72 10.8 2. 32% of 108 34.56
3. 24% of 234 56.16 4. 12.5% of 320 40 End of
Lesson

© Glencoe/McGraw-Hill 75 Lesson 10-7

You might also like