How to Work Out Percentages in Sixth Grade Math
Learning to work with percentages is a mathematical skill taught to children at an early age. Sixth-graders need to be able to understand, convert, add, subtract, multiple and divide percentages. Percentages are found in every day events such as store sales, credit-card interest rates and bank saving accounts. A percentage can be thought of as what portion of 100 that you have of something.
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Instructions
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Move the decimal place to convert percentages and decimals back and forth. To convert a percentage to a decimal, move the decimal point two places to the left. To convert a decimal to a percentage, move the decimal point two places to the right. For example, 25 percent can be written as the decimal 0.25. You can think of 25 percent as the fraction 25/100.
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Multiple or divide to convert fractions and percentages back and forth. Multiply by 100 to convert a fraction to a percentage. Divide by 100 to convert a percentage to a fraction. Simplify fraction answers when possible. For example, the fraction 3/4 multiplied by 100 becomes 75 percent.
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Use the ability to convert percentages to solve problems. Usually you convert any percentages to decimals at the beginning of a problem. If the question asks for a percentage answer, you usually convert at the end. For example, to calculate 25 percent of 300 apples, change 25 percent into 25/100 and then multiply that by 300 which gives you 75. Another example is to calculate what percentage 15 is of 60. Divide 15 by 60 to get 0.25. Convert the decimal to a percentage by moving the decimal point two places to the right to get 25 percent as your answer.
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