Percentages are a fundamental form of basic math but writing out and solving every percentage problem you come across can be extremely tedious. This is why we have created the percentage calculator, a tool that solves your percentage problems instantly, so you don't have to.
The percentage calculator is a simple and efficient tool for quickly and easily determining the percentage of any two given numbers.
The percentage calculator lets you calculate the percentage ratio of one number to another. For example, 50% of 100 is 50. Or, 5% of 20 is 1.
The percentage calculator lets you easily deduce simple, as well as more complex equations instantaneously.
For example, if on a sales report you saw that sales increased 172% from $5743, and you wanted to find out how much that equated to, you would simply type in 172 in the first box, and 5743 in the second, totaling $9878.
What exactly is percentage?
Percentage is the way in which a relation is expressed between two numbers in relation to a whole (or 100%). Percentage (or the % sign), is much like the – sign that is used when denoting negative numbers. In this same way, percentages, or fractions, describe numbers that are not whole.
Percentages can be expressed in a number of different ways. Take 25 percent for example:
Percentage form: 25%
Fraction form: 25/100
Decimal form 0.25
Spoken form: Twenty Five Hundredths (Or a "Quarter")
When describing percentages between two numbers, the percentage number can be above 100, indeed it can be infinite, but the whole number it is associated with will then increase.
An easy way to remember the rule is this:
If the percentage number (or the first number in our model) is SMALLER than 100, than the third number will always be smaller than the second number. (10% of 100 is 10)
If the percentage number is EXACTLY 100, than the third number will always be equal to the second number. (100% of 1,000,000 is 1,000,000)
If the percentage number is GREATER than 100, than the third number will always be greater than the second. (500% of 10 is 50)
There is one exception to these three rules, and that is if the second number (the non-percentage number) is 0. Than the third number will ALWAYS be 0, regardless of the percentage. (0% of 3,000,000 is 0)
Origin
The origin of percentage come from ancient Latin, where the word "Fractus" (or broken) was used to describe non-whole numbers. This word would later become the English "Fraction". When describing the ratio between these two numbers, the term "Per Centum" (Latin, meaning "For every hundred") was used. Later this was translated into French (Pour Cent), and then into English, where we have "Percentage".
Adding Percentages
In some math classes, you will be required to learn how to add percentages. This is very simple.
If you have a problem such as "Joey, Tom and Susan all took a math test. Joey got 30% on his test, Tom got 67% and Susan got 94% Find the average score for the three tests" follow the following steps to solve the problem.
Step one: Convert the percentages into their fraction form: 30/100, 67/100, and 94/100.
Step two: Add the numerators together (the first numbers). This equals 191.
Step three: Add the denominators together (the second number). This equals 300.
Step four: Divide both numbers by the number of fractions, which is three. Your final answer is 63.6/100, or 63.6%.
Percentage points
Often times in business and banking, the term "Points" is used as a shortcut to describe the difference between percentages. For example, if a commission that is to be paid increases from 7% to 9%, this is an increase in two percentage points.
Percentage points are also used as a form of pre-paid interest on loans, where one point equals 1% of the total amount of the loan. Borrowers can offer to pay a lender points as a method to reduce the interest rate on the loan, resulting in a lower monthly payment in exchange for an up-front cost.
Paying with "points" represents a gamble on the part of the buyer. There will be a point during the loan period where the money spent buying the interest rate will be equal to the money saved by making reduced loan payments. Abandoning or refinancing the loan prior to this break-even point will result in a net financial loss for the buyer, while keeping the loan for longer than this break-even point will result in a net financial savings for the buyer. The longer you keep the loan in place, the more your strategy of buying "points" in the beginning will pay off.
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