# Thread: working out percentages on paper

1. ## working out percentages on paper

Hello i apoligise if this is in the wrong forum but, i was wondering could anyone be kind enough to explain how i would work out the following problem on paper

if i had 70 calls and 24 of those were loan applications, what % of my calls were loan applications?

I think using a calculator i would 24/70=0.34 x100 =34% for my answer.

However how would i do this without a calculator? im not sure how i would work this division out on paper.

2. Cancel out factors: $\dfrac{24}{70} = \dfrac{12}{35}$. Since 35ths aren't common then division will be necessary to get the necessary numbers of decimal places.

3. Originally Posted by mike2000
Hello i apoligise if this is in the wrong forum but, i was wondering could anyone be kind enough to explain how i would work out the following problem on paper

if i had 70 calls and 24 of those were loan applications, what % of my calls were loan applications?

I think using a calculator i would 24/70=0.34 x100 =34% for my answer.

However how would i do this without a calculator? im not sure how i would work this division out on paper.

$\displaystyle\frac{24}{70}=\frac{x}{100}$

where x is the percentage.
Multiply both sides by 100

$\displaystyle\frac{2400}{70}=x=\frac{240}{7}$

Just divide through by 7.

4. Sorry my error

5. Hiya thanks for the help, could you show how you get those numbers? im sorry im a bit lost as to were you have gotten 2400/70 and 240/7 from

Thank you

6. Originally Posted by mike2000
Hiya thanks for the help, could you show how you get those numbers? im sorry im a bit lost as to were you have gotten 2400/70 and 240/7 from

Thank you
Sure..

24 out of 70 calls were loan applications, so your fraction is $\frac{loan\ apps}{total\ calls}=\frac{24}{70}$

You want to write this fraction as a percentage.
Percent means "per century" or "per hundred".

For instance, exam results are typically given as a percentage,
which is a fraction.

$80\%$ means "80 out of 100", so written as a fraction it's $\frac{80}{100}$

We want to express your fraction as "something" out of 100, so we write

$\frac{24}{70}=\frac{x}{100}$

We want x by itself. We can obtain that by multiplying both sides by 100

$100\frac{24}{70}=100\frac{x}{100}$

$\frac{24(100)}{70}=\frac{100x}{100}$

$\frac{2400}{70}=x$ which can be simplified by writing this as $\frac{10}{10}\ \frac{240}{7}=\frac{240}{7}$