# Math Help - common denominator in two values

1. ## common denominator in two values

Hi

I am having trouble trying to calculate a value by using percentages and a common denominator.

Value A EQUALS 1 to 20 where 20 = 100% and 1 = 5%
Value B EQUALS 1 to 50 where 50 = 100% and 1 = 2% - the unit of measure is 1

The objective is to find out how many units from value B can evenly go into 1 unit in Value A
I assume this will create a common denominator?? i.e. 1 unit of Value A = how many % of value B

We can safely assume that 20 (or 100%) of value A = 50 (or 100%) of value B.

If someone could explain to me how this equation would work I would really appreciate it thanks.

2. Originally Posted by xaventon
Hi

I am having trouble trying to calculate a value by using percentages and a common denominator.

Value A EQUALS 1 to 20 where 20 = 100% and 1 = 5%
Value B EQUALS 1 to 50 where 50 = 100% and 1 = 2% - the unit of measure is 1

The objective is to find out how many units from value B can evenly go into 1 unit in Value A
I assume this will create a common denominator?? i.e. 1 unit of Value A = how many % of value B

We can safely assume that 20 (or 100%) of value A = 50 (or 100%) of value B.

If someone could explain to me how this equation would work I would really appreciate it thanks.
Hi xaventon,

Your notation is non-standard and confusing. Nevertheless, I believe you want that 2.5 units of B equals 1 unit of A. You can get there by taking

$1=\frac{50\ \text{units of B}}{20\ \text{units of A}}=2.5\ \frac{\text{units of B}}{\text{unit of A}}$

Keep in mind that the percentages you gave will always give equal amounts of A or B. So, 5% of B is the same as 2.5 units of B is the same as 5% of A is the same as 1 unit of A.

I'm only working based on the information given, which, as stated above, is presented with non-standard notation/terminology.

3. Yes, sorry for the confusing notation maths is not my natural language I often use JavaScript vernacular.

Your solution was impressive and worked.

I did work on the equation the night before and it took me a couple of hours and some hits and misses.

To clarify, a formula was required to calculate how many units of measure on one side can go into another.

Value A always has a maximum of 20
Value B can have any maximum value
Value A was assigned 10
Value B was assigned 50

What I ended up doing was divide Value A by 20 to reach its decimal or percentage.
20 / 10 = 0.5 (or 50%)

Then I used your equation 50 units of A / 20 units of B = 2.5

The aim of the script was to determine the equation for 1 unit of A (above) so that the user-generated Value A can define the size of Value B relative to Value A.

Value A * 2.5 = the percentage of Value B (as opposed to its maximum)
10 * 2.5 = 25 (out of 50 units of B)

That was quite hard for me to figure out (but fun) so I thank you very much in advance for your efforts. I'll be on here much more often to learn physics and trigonometry for a development initiative.