Question

Find the whole quantity if 5% of x is 600.

Answer 1

Hint: Let us assume that the whole quantity is x and it is given in the question that 5% of x is 600. So, we can find the value of x from the expression, $\dfrac{5x}{100}=600$.

Complete step-by-step solution -
It is given in the question that 5% of x is 600 and that we have to find the value of x. It is given in the question that the value of x and 600 is 5% of x. So, x can be calculated as: 5% of x = 600 ………(i)
Now, we know that we can replace percentage (%) by writing 100 in the denominator. So, 5% can be written as $\dfrac{5}{100}$. Therefore, we can express 5% of x = 600 as $\dfrac{5x}{100}=600\ldots \ldots \ldots (ii)$.
On cross multiplying equation (ii), we will get, 5 x = (600) (100).
On simplifying, we get 5 x = 60000.
On dividing by 5 on both the sides of the above expression, we get, $\dfrac{5x}{5}=\dfrac{60000}{5}$.
On simplifying, we get, x = 12000.
Therefore, the whole quantity, x will be 12000 and it’s 5% is 600.

Note: This is a very basic type of question in mathematics, still students tend to make silly mistakes in these types of questions. Often students write the value of 5% as 5 itself, but that is wrong. Whenever there is a % sign, its value is written as $\dfrac{1}{100}$. If we consider this question, 5% of x should be written as $\dfrac{5x}{100}$ and not as 5x. So, this mistake must be avoided.