SOLUTION: Reducing percents as fractions? How is this possible!!! It seems so difficult! I have know clue how to teach my son this (he is homeschooled) I have even looked up it in a mathh bo

Question 554167: Reducing percents as fractions? How is this possible!!! It seems so difficult! I have know clue how to teach my son this (he is homeschooled) I have even looked up it in a mathh book and asked many different poeple, however I still do not understand it! I want to be able to teach my son how to do questions such as: 58 1/2% reduced to simplest form fraction
-PLEASE HELP!!!
Found 2 solutions by rapaljer, KMST:
Answer by rapaljer(4671) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
I am VERY sympathetic to the homeschool cause, and I think the website that I have can be very helpful to homeschool parents and kids trying to learn algebra. I don't think I have the explanation you need on converting fractions, decimals, and percents. I will be glad to answer some questions for you.

The question you asked was 58 1/2% to a fraction. It might be easiest to convert to a decimal by writing it as 58.5%, which (move the decimal two places to the left!) is .585. The decimal .585 means 585/1000, which can be reduced by dividing out a 5. This is 117/200, which should be the final answer.

If you have a few more examples of exercises, send them to me, and I'll see if I can help you.

Why don't you take a look at my website, and see if it might be a helpful supplement to your Homeschool Algebra curriculum. The price is right--it's ALL FREE!! The easiest way to find the website is to use the easy-to-remember and easy-to-spell link www.mathinlivingcolor.com. Near the bottom of this page is a link that takes you to my Homepage. On my Homepage, look for the link "Basic, Intermediate, and College Algebra: One Step at a Time."

If you need to contact me, send me an Email at rapaljer@seminolestate.edu.

Dr. Robert J. Rapalje, Retired
Seminole State College of Florida
Altamonte Springs Campus
Answer by KMST(5328) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
A percent is really a ratio, and a ratio is really a fraction, or a decimal number. Let me show you with an example.
EXAMPLE:
Let's say you want trying to calculate 6% tax on a $400 purchase.
6% is 6 out of every hundred.
As a ratio (or fraction) that is
6% = (Sometimes they write ratios as 6:100, but I find the little dots hard to read, and sometimes confuse ":" and ";").
To calculate the tax in your head, you would figure out how many times $100 fits into the price by dividing by $100 to get 4 times. Then you would multiply that times $6, which is the tax on each $100. That can be calculated as
$ x = $ or $400 x 0.06 = $24
There are many ways to write the same number:
= = = =
Those are equivalent ways to write 6% as a ratio, or a fraction, or a decimal number.
By multiplying times the same number both parts of the ratio (top and bottom), you can transform one way of expressing the ratio into an equivalent expression meaning the same ratio.
You could also divide by the same number both parts to get an equivalent expression, meaning the same ratio.
The ratio is a ratio but not a fraction, because is not an integer. Multiplying top and bottom parts by 2, we get the equivalent expression , which is a fraction.
, , are ratios and fractions. They are the same number expressed in different ways.
The one with the smallest top and bottom parts (numerator and denominator) is said to be the simplest form, or to be "in simplest terms" or "in lowest terms.
If they ask you to simplify a fraction, you try to find a number that will divide numerator and denominator to make an equivalent fraction.
The fraction could be simplified to and/or to .
However, there is no number that will evenly divide both 3 and 50, so is the simplest fraction that expresses that ratio.
EXTRA:
Numbers that can be expressed as ratios are called rational. They include the fractions, an integers like .
YOUR PROBLEM:
% = =
Because 117= 3 x 3 x 13, and 200 = 2 x 2 x 2 x 5 x 5,
they do not have any common factor.
There is no number that we could use to divide 117 and 200 to get a fraction with smaller numerator and denominator.
Believe it or not, 117/200 is the simplest fraction meaning 58 1/2%.
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