MEP Pupil Text 11

11 Fractions and Percentages

11.1 Fractions, Decimals and Percentages
Percentages can be converted to fractions because 'percentage' simply means 'per hundred'.
They can also be converted very easily to decimals, which can be useful when using a
calculator. Fractions and decimals can also be converted back to percentages.

Worked Example 1
Convert each of the following percentages to fractions.
(a) 50% (b) 40% (c) 8%

Solution
50 40 8
(a) 50% = (b) 40% = (c) 8% =
100 100 100
1 2 2
= = =
2 5 25

Worked Example 2
Convert each of the following percentages to decimals.
(a) 60% (b) 72% (c) 6%

Solution
60 72 6
(a) 60% = (b) 72% = (c) 6% =
100 100 100
= 0.6 = 0.72 = 0.06

Worked Example 3
Convert each of the following decimals to percentages.
(a) 0.04 (b) 0.65 (c) 0.9

Solution
4 65 9
(a) 0.04 = (b) 0.65 = (c) 0.9 =
100 100 10
90
= 4% = 65% =
100

= 90%
Information
'Per cent' comes from the Latin , 'per centum', which means 'for each hundred'.

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Worked Example 4
Convert each of the following fractions to percentages.
3 1 1
(a) (b) (c)
10 4 3

Solution
To convert fractions to percentages, multiply the fraction by 100%. This gives its value
as a percentage.
3 3 1 1 1 1
(a) = × 100% (b) = × 100% (c) = × 100%
10 10 4 4 3 3

= 30% = 25% = 33 13 %

Exercises
1. Convert each of the following percentages to fractions, giving your answers in their
simplest form.
(a) 10% (b) 80% (c) 90% (d) 5%
(e) 25% (f) 75% (g) 35% (h) 38%
(i) 4% (j) 12% (k) 82% (l) 74%

2. Convert each of the following percentages to decimals.

(a) 32% (b) 50% (c) 34% (d) 20%
(e) 15% (f) 81% (g) 4% (h) 3%
(i) 7% (j) 18% (k) 75% (l) 73%

3. Convert the following decimals to percentages.

(a) 0.5 (b) 0.74 (c) 0.35 (d) 0.08
(e) 0.1 (f) 0.52 (g) 0.8 (h) 0.07
(i) 0.04 (j) 0.18 (k) 0.4 (l) 0.3

4. Convert the following fractions to percentages.

1 7 1 3
(a) (b) (c) (d)
2 10 5 4
1 9 4 4
(e) (f) (g) (h)
10 10 5 50
8 7 7 2
(i) (j) (k) (l)
25 20 25 3

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11.1

2 ? 16
5. (a) Complete the equation = =
3 15 ?
7
(b) Change to a percentage. (MEG)
20

6. (a) Water is poured into this jug.

Copy the diagram and show accurately the water
level when the jug is three-quarters full.

(b) What percentage of the jug is filled with water?

(SEG)

7. Plan of a garden

Vegetable
Patch
Orchard Not to scale
Lawn Pond

(a) In the garden the vegetable patch has an area of 46.2 m 2 . The orchard has
an area of 133.6 m 2 .
What is the total area of the vegetable patch and the orchard? Give your
answer to the nearest square metre.
(b) The garden has an area of 400 m 2 .
(i) The lawn is 30% of the garden. Calculate the area of the lawn.
(ii) A pond in the garden has an area of 80 m 2 . What percentage of the
garden is taken up by the pond?
(SEG)

11.2 Fractions and Percentages of Quantities

Percentages are often used to describe changes in quantities or prices. For example,

'30% extra free' '10% discount' 'add 17 12 % VAT'

This section deals with finding fractions or percentages of quantities.

Worked Example 1
Find 20% of £84.

Solution
This can be done by converting 20% to either a fraction or a decimal.

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Converting to a fraction
20 1
Note that 20% = =
100 5
1
Therefore 20% of £84 = × £84
5
= £16.80 .
Converting to a decimal
Note that 20% = 0.2
Therefore 20% of £84 = 0.2 × £84
= £16.80 .

Worked Example 2
A shopkeeper decides to increase some prices by 10%. By how much would she increase
the price of:
(a) a loaf of bread costing 90p (b) a packet of cereal costing £2.00?

Solution
1
First note that 10% = .
10
1
(a) 10% of 90p = × 90 p
10
= 9 p.

So the cost of a loaf will be increased by 9p.

1
(b) 10% of £2 = × £2
10
= £0.20 or 20p.
So the cost of a packet of cereal is increased by 20p.

Worked Example 3
A farmer decides to sell 25% of his 500 cows. How many cows does he sell?

Solution
1
First note that 25% = .
4
1
25% of 500 = × 500
4
= 125 .
So he sells 125 cows.

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11.2

Worked Example 4
Natasha invests £200 in a building society account. At the end of the year she receives 5%
interest. How much interest does she receive?

Solution
5 1
First convert 5% to a fraction. 5% = =
100 20
1
5% of £200 = × £200
20
= £10 .
So she receives £10 interest.

Exercises
1. Find
(a) 10% of 200 (b) 50% of £5 (c) 20% of £8
(d) 25% of £100 (e) 40% of £500 (f) 90% of 200

(g) 33 13 % of £12 (h) 75% of 800 (i) 75% of 1000

(j) 80% of 20 kg (k) 70% of 5 kg (l) 30% of 50 kg
(m) 5% of 100 m (n) 20% of 50 m (o) 25% of £30

2. Find
2 3 1
(a) of 80 (b) of 120 (c) of 90
5 4 5
1 4 3
(d) of 360 (e) of 150 (f) of 500
4 5 10

3. A firm decides to give 20% extra free in their packets of soap powder. How much
extra soap powder would be given away free with packets which normally contain
(a) 2 kg of powder (b) 1.2 kg of powder?

4. A house costs £30 000. A buyer is given a 10% discount. How much money does
the buyer save?

5. John has invested £500 in a building society. He gets 5% interest each year.
How much interest does he get in a year?

6. Karen bought an antique vase for £120. Two years later its value had increased
by 25%. What was the new value of the vase?

7. Ahmed wants to buy a new carpet for his house. The cost of the carpet is £240.
One day the carpet shop has a special offer of a 25% discount. How much money
does he save by using this offer?
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8. When Wendy walks to school she covers a distance of 1800 m. One day she
discovers a short cut which reduces this distance by 20%. How much shorter is the
new route?

9. Chen earns £30 per week from his part-time job. He is given a 5% pay rise.
How much extra does he earn each week?

10. Gareth weighed 90 kg. He went on a diet and tried to reduce his weight by 10%.
How many kilograms did he try to lose?

11. Kim's mother decided to increase her pocket money by 40%. How much extra did
Kim receive each week if previously she had been given £2.00 per week?

12. A new-born baby girl weighed 4 kg. In the first three months her weight increased
by 60%. How much weight had the baby gained?

13. Work out

7 3
(a) of £8 (b) 20% of £25 (c) of 6 metres.
10 8
(LON)

14. (a) Calculate 15% of £600.

(b) List these fractions in order of size, starting with the smallest.
1 2 5 1
, , ,
3 9 6 6
(MEG)

15. A cake weighs 850 grams. 20% of the cake is sugar. Calculate the weight of sugar
in the cake.
(MEG)

16. An athletics stadium has 35 000 seats. 4% of the seats are fitted with headphones
to help people hear the announcements. How many headphones are there in the
stadium?
(NEAB)

17. Jane wants to buy this car.

2 £1 800
The deposit is of the price of the car.
5
Jane's father gives her 30% of the price.
Will this be enough for her deposit?
You must explain your answer fully.

Investigation
The ancient Egyptians were the first to use fractions. However, they only used fractions
3 1 1
with a numerator of one. Thus they wrote as + , etc.
8 4 8
3 9 2 7
What do you think the Egyptians would write for the fractions , , and ?
5 20 3 12
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11.3 Quantities as Percentages

To answer questions such as,
Is it better to score 30 out of 40 or 40 out of 50?
it is helpful to express the scores as percentages.

Worked Example 1
Express '30 out of 40' and '40 out of 50' as percentages. Which is the better score?

Solution
30 40
'30 out of 40' can be written as and '40 out of 50' can be written as .
40 50
Changing these fractions to percentages,
30 30 40 40
= × 100% and = × 100%
40 40 50 50
= 75% = 80%

So '40 out of 50' is the better score, since 80% is greater than 75%.

Worked Example 2
A pupil scores 6 out of 10 in a test. Express this as a percentage.

Solution
6
'6 out of 10' can be written as . Changing this fraction to a percentage,
10
6 6
= × 100% = 60% .
10 10

Worked Example 3
Robyn and Rachel bought a set of CDs for £20. Robyn paid £11 and Rachel paid £9.
What percentage of the total cost did each girl pay?

Solution
Robyn paid £11 out of £20, which is
11 11
= × 100% = 55%.
20 20

Rachel paid £9 out of £20, which is

9 9
= × 100% = 45% .
20 20

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Worked Example 4
David earns £400 per week and saves £30 towards the cost of a new car.
What percentage of his earnings does he save?

Solution
He saves £30 out of £400, which is
30 30
= × 100% = 7.5% .
400 400

Exercises
1. Express each of the following as percentages.
(a) 8 out of 50 (b) 3 out of 25 (c) 8 out of 20
(d) 3 out of 10 (e) 6 out of 50 (f) 6 out of 40
(g) 12 out of 80 (h) 9 out of 30 (i) 27 out of 30
(j) 120 out of 300 (k) 84 out of 200 (l) 260 out of 400
(m) 28 out of 70 (n) 18 out of 60 (o) 51 out of 60

2. In a class of 25 children there are 10 girls. What percentage of the class are girls
and what percentage are boys?

3. The price of a bar of chocolate is 25p and includes 5p profit. Express the profit as
a percentage of the price.

4. The value of a house is £40 000 and the value of the contents is £3 200.
Express the contents value as a percentage of the house value.

5. In the crowd at a football match there were 28 000 Manchester United supporters
and 22 000 Tottenham supporters. What percentage of the crowd supported each
team?

6. A school won a prize of £2000. The staff spent £1600 on a new computer and the
rest on software. What percentage of the money was spent on software?

7. A book contained 80 black and white pictures and 120 colour pictures.
What percentage of the pictures were in colour?

8. In a survey of 300 people it was found that 243 people watched EastEnders
regularly. Express this as a percentage.

9. James needs another 40 football stickers to complete his collection. There is a total
of 500 stickers in the collection. What percentage of the collection does he have
already?

10. A 600 ml bottle of shampoo contains 200 ml of free shampoo. What percentage is
free?

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11.3

11. Adrian finds that in a delivery of 500 bricks there are 20 broken bricks.
What percentage of the bricks are broken?

12. A glass of drink contains 50 ml of fruit juice and 200 ml of lemonade.

What percentage of the drink is lemonade?

13. A recent survey shows that there are 20 000 different types of fish in the world.
People catch only 9000 different types. What percentage of the different types of
fish do people catch?
(NEAB)

14. Georgina buys a bar of chocolate. CH

The bar is divided into 18 equal pieces. OC
OL
AT
(a) Georgina eats three pieces of chocolate.
What fraction of the bar has she eaten?
3
(b) Later in the day Georgina eats of the pieces that are left.
5
How many pieces of chocolate have been eaten altogether?
(c) What percentage of the bar has not been eaten?
(SEG)

11.4 More Complex Percentages

Not all percentages can be expressed as simple fractions and often figures such as 4.26%
may need to be used. In these cases it is often better to work with decimals.

Worked Example 1
The cost of a hotel bill is £200. VAT at 17.5% has to be added to this bill. Find the VAT
and the total bill.

Solution
Use 17.5% = 0.175.
Then
17.5% of £200 = 0.175 × £200
= £35 .
So the total bill is
£200 + £35 = £235 .

Worked Example 2
Imran has £486.27 in his building society account which earns interest of 8.21% per year.
How much interest does he get and how much money does he have in his account after
the first year?

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Solution
Writing 8.21% as a decimal gives 0.0821.

8.21% of £486.27 = 0.0821 × £486.27

= £39.92 (to the nearest penny)
So the account now contains
£486.27 + £39.92 = £526.19 .

Worked Example 3
The cost of a large load of concrete blocks is £288 plus VAT at 17.5%. Find the total cost
of the concrete blocks.

Solution
The problem can be solved in one stage by finding 117.5% of £288. This will give the
original amount plus the VAT.

Note that 117.5% is 1.175 as a decimal.

So
117.5% of £288 = 1.175 × £288
= £338.40 .
The total price is £338.40.

Worked Example 4
Jessica's salary of £12 000 is to be increased by 2.5%. Find her new salary.

Solution
Her new salary is 102.5% of her old salary.

102.5% of £12 000 = 1.025 × £12 000

= £12 300 .
Her new salary is £12 300.

Worked Example 5
A new car costs £9995, but a special offer gives an 8.5% discount. Find the discount
price of the car.

Solution
With an 8.5% discount, 91.5% of the original price must be paid.
So
91.5% of £9995 = 0.915 × £9995
= £9145.43 (to the nearest penny)
The discounted price is £9145.43.

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11.4

Exercises
1. Find each of the following, giving your answers to the nearest penny.
(a) 32% of £50 (b) 15% of £83 (c) 12.6% of £40
(d) 4.7% of £30 (e) 6.9% of £52 (f) 3.7% of £18.62
(g) 0.8% of £4000 (h) 92.3% of £211 (i) 3.2% of £8.62

2. (a) Add 17.5% VAT to £415.

(b) Add 3.2% interest to £1148.
(c) Increase a salary of £15 000 by 1.6%.
(d) Increase a price of £199 by 3.2%.
(e) Decrease £420 by 7%.
(f) Find the price of a £240 television offer with a 15% discount.
(g) Find the price of an £11 999 car after a 22% discount.

3. A portable CD player has a normal price of £150.

(a) In a sale its normal price is reduced by 12%. Find the sale price.
(b) After the sale, normal prices are increased by 2.5%. Find the new price of
the CD player.

4. An ice cream firm sells 20 000 ice-creams during one summer month. They expect
sales to increase by 22% in the next month. How many ice-creams do they expect
to sell?

5. Peter earns £9000 per year in his new job. He does not pay tax on the first £3500
he earns and pays 25% tax on the rest. How much tax does he have to pay?

6. Richard and Debbie cancel their holiday at short notice. The travel agents refund
65% of the £420 they had paid. How much money do Richard and Debbie lose?

7. A chocolate manufacturer decides to introduce a range of King Size bars which are
35% larger than normal. A normal bar weighs 150 grams. What would a King
Size bar weigh?

8. A midi-hifi costs £186 plus VAT at 17 12 %. Its price is increased by 4%. How much
would you have to pay to buy the midi-hifi at the new price?

9. A company pays a Christmas bonus of £120 to each of its employees. This is taxed
at 25%. One year they increase the bonus by 5%. How much does an employee
take home?

10. A new gas supplier offers a 20% discount on the normal price and a further 5%
discount if customers pay directly from their banks. For one household the gas bill
is normally £100. Find out how much they have to pay after both discounts.

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 MEP Pupil Text 11

11. A mountain bike costs £350 plus VAT.

1
VAT is charged at 17 %.
2
How much is the VAT?
(SEG)

12. TERMS
CASH
A discount of 15% SUPER 24" TV A deposit of
off the marked price 1
£276 of the marked price
if you pay cash 4
then 24 monthly payments
of £9.45 each

(a) Mr. Smith buys the television set for cash. How much discount is he allowed?

(b) Mr. Jones buys the set on terms.

(i) How much must he pay as a deposit?
(ii) Multiply 945 by 24 without using a calculator.
Show all your working.
(iii) Work out the total price that Mr. Jones pays for his television set.
(MEG)

1
13. The usual price of a television set is £298 plus VAT at 17 %.
2
1
(a) (i) Work out the exact value of 17 % of £298.
2
(ii) What is the usual price of this television set?

RE BER
N N E T STO R! RIES
'S
GA FFE
AIN O SALE TORE
BARG !
AT! 1
p a y NO V
Yo u 6 OFF
USU
AL P
RICE
S

Gannet Store and Berries' Store are selling larger television sets at reduced
prices. The usual price of these sets in both stores is £423 (£360 plus
£63 VAT).
(b) (i) Calculate the difference between the reduced prices in the two stores.
Show your working clearly.
(ii) Which of the stores gives the bigger reduction?
(MEG)

Information
Did you know that a gallon in the UK is 20% bigger than a gallon in the USA?

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11.5 Percentage Increase and Decrease

Percentage increases are calculated using

actual increase
Percentage increase = × 100%
initial value

Similarly, percentage decreases are calculated using

actual decrease
Percentage decrease = × 100%
initial value

Worked Example 1
The population of a village increased from 234 to 275 during one year. Find the
percentage increase.

Solution
Actual increase = 275 − 234 = 41.

41
Percentage increase = × 100%
234
= 17.52% (to 2 decimal places)

Worked Example 2
When a beaker of sand is dried in a hot oven its mass reduces from 450 grams to
320 grams. Find the percentage reduction in its mass.

Solution
Actual reduction = 450 grams − 320 grams
= 130 grams.
130
Percentage reduction = × 100%
450
= 28.9% . %

Worked Example 3
John buys calculators for £5 each and then sells them to other students for £6.90.
Find his percentage profit.

Solution
Actual profit = £6.90 − £5
= £1.90
1.90
Percentage profit = × 100%
5
= 38%.
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Exercises
1. A baby weighed 5.6 kg and six weeks later her weight had increased to 6.8 kg.
Find the percentage increase.

2. A factory produces video tapes at a cost of 88p and sells them for £1.10. Find the
percentage profit.

3. A new car cost £11 500 and one year later it was sold for £9995. Find the
percentage reduction in the value of the car.

4. An investor bought some shares at a price of £4.88 each. The price of the shares
dropped to £3.96. Find the percentage loss.

5. A supermarket offers a £10 discount to all customers spending £40 or more.

Karen spends £42.63 and John spends £78.82. Find the percentage saving for
Karen and John.

6. After a special offer the price of baked beans was increased from 15p per tin to
21p per tin. Find the percentage increase in the price.

7. The size of a school increased so that it had 750 pupils instead of 680 and
38 teachers instead of 37. Find the percentage increases in the number of teachers
and pupils. Comment on your answers.

8. In a science experiment the length of a spring increased by 4 cm to 20 cm.

Find the percentage increase in the length of the spring.

9. The average cost of a local telephone call for one customer dropped by 8p to 27p.
Find the percentage reduction in the average cost of a local call.

10. In a year, the value of a house increased from £46 000 to £48 000. Find the
percentage increase in the value of the house and use this to estimate the value after
another year.

11. A battery was tested and found to power a cassette player for 12 hours.
An improved version of the battery powered the cassette player for an extra
30 minutes. Find the percentage increase in the life of the batteries.

12. The value of a car depreciates as shown in the table.

Vehicle Value
New £12 000
After 1 year £10 000
After 2 years £ 8 800
After 3 years £ 8 000

During which year is the percentage decrease in the value of the car the greatest?

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11.5

13.
Quality Garden Supplies
SUMMER SALE!
Save 20% on goods totalling
£30 or more.

(a) Ken bought a ladder marked £35. How much did he save?
(b) Tom needs a new spade. He can buy spade A which is marked £27.95 or
spade B which is marked £32.45.
(i) Calculate 20% of £32.45.
(ii) How much cheaper would it be for Tom to buy spade B than to buy
spade A?
(c) Tom's wife suggests that he buys spade A, together with a plant costing
£2.05 which she wants, so that he gets the 20% saving.
If he buys the plant and spade A, express the saving as a percentage of the
cost of spade A.
(MEG)

14.
Super Ace Games System
Normal Price £120
1
Sale Price off
3

(a) Work out the sale price of the Super Ace Games System.

Mega Ace Games System

Normal Price £320

Sale Price £272

(b) Find the percentage reduction on the Mega Ace Games System in the sale.
(LON)

15. Jimmy paid £120 for a CD player. He sold it for £105. What was his loss as a
percentage of the price he paid?
(SEG)

Just For Fun

The growth rate of the human hair varies from person to person. On average, a human
hair grows at a rate of 0.35 mm per day. If the length of a hair is 6 cm, how long will it
take the hair to grow to a length of 26 cm?

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