SOLUTION: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) calculates that 68 billion needs to be eliminated from the current budget of 3.4 trillion. What percentage needs to be cut from the budget?

Question 1200194: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) calculates that 68 billion needs to be eliminated from the current budget of 3.4 trillion. What percentage needs to be cut from the budget?
Answer by math_tutor2020(3817) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

Answer: 2%

Reason:
The jump from "1 billion" to "1 trillion" is "times 1000"

1 billion = 1,000,000,000 = 1 with 9 zeros
1 trillion = 1,000,000,000,000 = 1 with 12 zeros
The extra 3 zeros is from the "times 1000".

Or you can use scientific notation which is probably the better way to go.
This avoids the tedious busy-work of writing all those pesky zeros.
1 billion = 1*10^9
1 trillion = 1*10^12
Notice how the exponents subtract to 12-9 = 3, showing a ratio of 10^3 = 1000

I'm bringing this up because we can convert "3.4 trillion" into an equivalent format using "billion" as the unit.

1 trillion = 1000 billion
3.4*1 trillion = 3.4*1000 billion
3.4 trillion = 3400 billion

Then we divide the amount cut (68 billion) over the original budget (3400 billion). The units "billion" cancel out.

(68 billion)/(3400 billion) = 68/3400 = 0.02
Move the decimal spot over two spots to the right to get to the final answer of 2%

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