1. EXAMPLE: WORKING WITH PERCENTS

2. PROBLEM WHAT PERCENT OF 40 IS 18?

3. SOLUTION In order to find the solution to the problem, we need to translate the sentence/question into an equation and then solve the equation. The following translations may be helpful: EnglishMathematics of * (multiply) is = (equal to sign) what number x (unknown number represented with a letter) what percent x (unknown number represented with a letter)

4. Let’s read the question again: WHAT PERCENTOF 40 IS 18? Notice all the keywords above WHAT PERCENTOF 40 IS 18? We can translate as follows: x * 40 = 18

5. So our equation to solve is We can solve for the variable x by dividing both sides of the equation by 40 Simplify and solve for x Finally we change 0.45 to percent because the problem asked for percent.

6. Solving applied problems involving percent Open University Malaysia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://oer.oum.edu.my. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.oum.edu.my.Open University Malaysia Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License http://oer.oum.edu.my http://www.oum.edu.my