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Pre-Algebra: Writing a Decimal as a Percent

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About this Lesson

  • Type: Video Tutorial
  • Length: 2:31
  • Media: Video/mp4
  • Posted: 01/28/2009
  • Use: Watch Online & Download
  • Download: MP4 (iPod compatible)
  • Size: 39 MB

This lesson is part of the series: Pre-Algebra Review

A percent gives us a sense of how much of something a number is. Professor Burger shows us that converting a decimal to a percentage is pretty simple. In prior lessons, we've learned how to convert a percentage to a decimal (by dividing by one hundred). In this lesson, we will learn how to convert a decimal to a percentage. To do so, you will multiply the decimal by 100. This is the same as moving the decimal point over two places to the right.

Taught by Professor Edward Burger, this lesson was selected from a broader, comprehensive course, Pre Algebra. This course and others are available from Thinkwell, Inc. The full course can be found at http://www.thinkwell.com/student/product/prealgebra. The full course covers whole numbers, integers, fractions and decimals, variables, expressions, equations and a variety of other pre algebra topics.

Edward Burger, Professor of Mathematics at Williams College, earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, having graduated summa cum laude with distinction in mathematics from Connecticut College.

He has also taught at UT-Austin and the University of Colorado at Boulder, and he served as a fellow at the University of Waterloo in Canada and at Macquarie University in Australia. Prof. Burger has won many awards, including the 2001 Haimo Award for Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics, the 2004 Chauvenet Prize, and the 2006 Lester R. Ford Award, all from the Mathematical Association of America. In 2006, Reader's Digest named him in the "100 Best of America".

Prof. Burger is the author of over 50 articles, videos, and books, including the trade book, Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz: Making Light of Weighty Ideas and of the textbook The Heart of Mathematics: An Invitation to Effective Thinking. He also speaks frequently to professional and public audiences, referees professional journals, and publishes articles in leading math journals, including The Journal of Number Theory and American Mathematical Monthly. His areas of specialty include number theory, Diophantine approximation, p-adic analysis, the geometry of numbers, and the theory of continued fractions.

Prof. Burger's unique sense of humor and his teaching expertise combine to make him the ideal presenter of Thinkwell's entertaining and informative video lectures.

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Founded in 1997, Thinkwell has succeeded in creating "next-generation" textbooks that help students learn and teachers teach. Capitalizing on the power of new technology, Thinkwell products prepare students more effectively for their coursework than any printed textbook can. Thinkwell has assembled a group of talented industry professionals who have shaped the company into the leading provider of technology-based textbooks. For more information about Thinkwell, please visit www.thinkwell.com or visit Thinkwell's Video Lesson Store at http://thinkwell.mindbites.com/.

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WRITING A DECIMAL AS A PERCENT

Percentages are a great way of getting a sense of how much something is. A hundred percent, for example, is the whole thing. Fifty percent gives us an idea of being half of whatever the thing is. But how do we generate percentages if we are given a decimal number? The answer is pretty clear, we just have to remember to multiply the decimal number by one hundred, and that will give us the percent. For example, if you have one whole thing, that’s one. If we multiply it by one hundred, we generate one hundred percent. If we think about one-half of something, and we multiply it by one hundred, one hundred multiplied by one half is fifty, fifty percent.

Let’s take a look at some slightly less common percentages. These are decimals, and I want to convert them to percentages. How do I do it? I multiply by one hundred. So, zero point six would equal, when we multiply it by one hundred, that’s just the act of literally taking the decimal point and moving it two places over to the right. So I would see sixty. So, zero point six is equal to sixty percent. A little more than half. A little more than fifty percent.

What about zero point five seven multiplied by one hundred? Move the decimal two places over to the right, and we see fifty- seven percent. Closer to fifty percent, but a little bit more. Notice this number is closer to point five, but a little more than point five. What about this crazy number? Wow, that’s a big thing. Zero point eight nine two four. But, for the percentage I just move the decimal two places over. Don’t be tempted to move it farther over; we only multiplied it by one hundred. We see eighty-nine point two four percent. It’s ok to have a decimal point in a percentage, but we understand it is eighty-nine point two four percent.

Finally here’s a very tiny number: zero point zero four five. If I multiply that by one hundred and move the decimal two places to the right, I see four point five percent. A little bit less than five percent.

So it’s easy to take decimal numbers and convert them to the equivalent percentage by simply multiplying by one hundred, which is the same thing as the even simpler task of moving the decimal two places to the right.

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