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Pre-Algebra: Writing a Fraction as a Percent

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About this Lesson

  • Type: Video Tutorial
  • Length: 2:30
  • Media: Video/mp4
  • Posted: 01/28/2009
  • Use: Watch Online & Download
  • Download: MP4 (iPod compatible)
  • Size: 37 MB

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

There are two different ways to convert a fraction to a percentage depending on how easy the problem is. If the denominator of the fraction is a multiple of 100, Professor Burger shows you how to multiply the fraction up so that the numerator is over 100, in which case it will be a percentage. Professor Burger also shows you how to use long division to find the decimal equivalent of the fraction, and then multiply by 100 to find the percentage.

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 FRACTION AS A PERCENT

If we want to convert fractions to percentages, we can do that, too, using the method of multiplying by one hundred or we can look and see exactly what the percentage is by looking at the fraction. Let’s take a look at two over twenty-five. If we take a look at two over twenty-five, I notice something really neat. If I were to write this as an equivalent fraction, not changing the value of anything, if I multiply the top and the bottom by four, I don’t change the fraction, but look what happens. I get eight over one hundred. So now it’s really easy to take that quantity and multiply it by one hundred. When I multiply it by one hundred, the hundreds actually drop out, and I’m just left with eight percent. So, eight over one hundred is the same thing as eight percent.

Now the second one, five over eight, that trick is not going to work too well. So I have to divide that thing out. So let’s divide out and see what we get when we take five divided eight. Put the decimal point here, and here we go. Put lots of zeros, as we might need them. Eight doesn’t go into five, so I’m going to start up here, eight goes into fifty six times. Eight times six is forty-eight. I subtract off, I get a two, bring down the zero, eight goes into twenty twice. Eight times two is sixteen, I subtract off, and I get a four. Bring down an extra zero. Eight goes into forty five times. Five times eight is forty; I get a remainder of zero, so I am done. Phew. But now, I see that this is equivalent to the decimal zero point six two five. How do I convert that to a percent? No problem at all, I just multiply by one hundred. Move the decimal over two places, and I see sixty-two point five percent. So there’s the percent for five-eighths.

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