200 is what percent of 40?

Question

I got the answer 80 but my teacher says thats wrong. I wanted to see what I did wrong

Answer 1

To find what percent one number is of another, you divide the FIRST number by the SECOND.

 

What you figured out was what percent 40 is of 200, but they asked the OPPOSITE.

 

So divide 200 by 40.  That gives you 5.  So the answer is 500%.

 

 

 

Answer 2

Jon's method is the best and fastest, but here is one more thought on this:

 

when you see "what percent," immediately write a fraction that looks like this:

 

?/100, which means "some amount out of 100," which is what per cent means.

 

Then plug the remaining info into another fraction where the numerator is the PART, and the denominator is the WHOLE. (In this case the PART is bigger than the whole, which is ok.)

 

So in this case, you would see ?/100 = 200/40, so

 

"Some number is as many times as big [or small] as 100, as 200 is to 40. 200 is 5 times bigger than 40, so I need the number that's 5 times bigger than 100."

 

which is 500.

 

It takes some time, but if you're not sure of what number does which job, use this.

 

The WHAT PERCENT part is key!!

 

Matt