# per cent

The per cent may be in general interpreted to mean a ‘hundredth’. So e.g. 5 per cent is ‘5 hundredths’, i.e. $\frac{5}{100}$.

In practice, giving some number of per cents, one means so many hundredths of a quantity given in the same or being clear from the context; for example, we can say that the illiteracy in the world is about 20 per cent – meaning that 20/100 of the adults of the world cannot read. If we say that the interest (rate) of a loan is 8 per cent, it means that one must pay interest for the loan 8/100 of the amount of the loan in a year.

If a percentage of a quantity has changed e.g. from 12% to 15%, we must not say that it has grown 3% but that it has grown 3 percentage points.

Determination of percentage

How many percent a number $a$ is of a second number $b$? The answer, the per cent number $p$, is obtained from

 $\displaystyle p=\frac{a}{b}\cdot 100.$ (1)

The number $b$ here is called the base value and $a$ the per cent value(?). Essentially, the procedure in (1) may be replaced by converting the ratio $\frac{a}{b}$ to hundredths, which can be done formally by multiplying this ratio by  $1=\frac{100}{100}=100\%$:

 $\frac{a}{b}=\frac{a}{b}\cdot 100\,\%.$
 Title per cent Canonical name PerCent Date of creation 2013-03-22 17:32:43 Last modified on 2013-03-22 17:32:43 Owner CWoo (3771) Last modified by CWoo (3771) Numerical id 7 Author CWoo (3771) Entry type Definition Classification msc 97D99 Classification msc 00A69 Synonym percent Defines percentage point Defines per cent number Defines base value Defines per cent value