Why percentages are so confusing and how to make them painless - Part 2

In Part 1 of GCSE Maths Percentage Questions we looked at changing fractions into percentages when the bottom number (denominator) goes into 100, i.e. is a factor of 100.

However, this won't always happen and you need to know how to change other fractions into percentages.

For example, you might have to change 6/24 into a percentage.

For these kind of questions, you need to remember that a fraction is also a divide. Meaning that 6/24 is also 6 divided by 24.

The process for converting these kind of fractions to a percentage is to simplify the fraction and then do the division.

So in this case, 6/24 simplifies to 1/4. 1 divided by 4 is 0.25.

To change a decimal into a percentage, multiply by 100, which gives us 25%.

Here's another example: 3/16

3/16 does not simplify.

16 does not go into 100.

So to change 3/16 into a percentage we need to do the division.

These kind of questions are usually calculator questions, but you can also do them without a calculator.

You will need to add some decimal places to the 16 - I will go into detail on how to divide awkward numbers in a different post.

3 divided by 16 is 0.1875, multiply by 100 to get 18.75%

Below are some practice questions.

Express the following as percentages:

1. 16/26

2. 37/84

3. 56/65

4. 78/90

5. 12/30

6. 42/90

7. 84/85

8. 17/27

9. 33/35

10. 43/57