Often, we run into situations where we need to calculate the percentage between two numbers. There are a few different ways that you can do this, and we’re going to walk you through a few of them so that you can figure out which method is best for your particular needs. But before we get into the methods, let’s briefly review what a percentage is and how it’s calculated.
A percentage is a way of representing a fraction using 100 as the denominator. So, if we have a fraction like 3/4, we can represent it as a percentage by first multiplying the numerator and denominator by 25 to get 75/100. We can then say that the fraction of 3/4 is equal to 75%.
Similarly, if we have a percentage calculator between two numbers fraction like 2/5, we can represent it as a percentage by first multiplying the numerator and denominator by 20 to get 40/100. We can then say that the fraction of 2/5 is equal to 40%.
Now that we know how to calculate percentages let’s look at some different methods for calculating the percentage between two numbers.
Method 1: Use Proportionality
- If you know one of the values and the corresponding percent, you can use proportionality to figure out the other value. For example, let’s say you know that 40% of students in your school are girls and that there are 1000 students in your school in total. You can set up a proportion like this: 40% = x/1000
- You can then cross-multiply to get 40x = 1000% and solve for x to find that x = 2500 girls.
- This method only works if you know one of the values and its corresponding percent. If you don’t know either of those things, you’ll need to use one of the other methods below.
Method 2: Use The Percentage Formula
- The percentage formula is simply this: P% * X = Y
- Let’s break down what each letter stands for:
- P = The percent rounded to decimal form (i.e., 10% would be 0.10)
- X = The whole value (i.e. 10)
- Y = The result of P% * X (i-e 1)
- So, if we plug in our values from above where P = 0.40 and X = 1000, we get Y = 400
- This means there are 400 girls in total in the school. Again, this method only works if you know one of the values; in this case, we knew what P was and solved for Y.
- If you don’t know either P or Y, you won’t be able to use this method either and will need to resort to one of the other methods that were discussed below.
Conclusion
As we can see, knowing how to calculate percentages can come in handy in a variety of everyday situations! We hope this article has been helpful in showing you how to go about calculating percentages using three different methods. Remember, practice makes perfect! With a little bit of time and effort, you’ll be able to calculate percentages like a pro and an expert in no time!