Reading and Writing Percents

 Rewriting a Percent in Decimal Form

To change percents into decimal form, we first interpret the percent as a ratio in fraction form as a part out of 100, and then change the fraction to a decimal by using place value.

Example:   Rewrite 27% as a decimal.

which by decimal place value is 0.27.

Example:  Rewrite 8% as a decimal.

which by decimal place value is 0.08.

Example:  Rewrite 112% as a decimal.

112% can be changed to a decimal by first rewriting the fraction as a mixed number.

Example:  Rewrite 4.5% as a decimal.

Note that in each example the decimal point is moved left two positions so that the ones position of the percent is placed in the hundredths position in the decimal form.

Self Check Problems

Convert each percent into a decimal.

40%	Solution
300%	Solution
3.8%	Solution
274%	Solution

 

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