Question

If \[39\] is $15\% $ of a number, what is that number? How did you find your answer?

Answer 1

Hint: Let the number be $x$ . According to the question, we know that $15\% $ of $x$ is equal to \[39\] . Thus, we have $\dfrac{{15}}{{100}} \times x = 39$ . We solve further to get our required answer.

Complete step-by-step solution:
In the question given above, we have an unknown number whose percentage is given. According to the question, $15\% $ of the unknown number is equal to \[39\] .
Therefore, let the unknown number be $x$ .
According to the question,
$ \Rightarrow \dfrac{{15}}{{100}} \times x = 39$ as $15\% $ is equal to $\dfrac{{15}}{{100}}$ .
On solving the left side, we get,
$ \Rightarrow \dfrac{{{{15}}}}{{{{100}}}} \times x = 39$
$ \Rightarrow \dfrac{3}{{20}} \times x = 39$
Now we multiply both the sides of the equation with $\dfrac{{20}}{3}$ so as to isolate our $x$ , we get,
$ \Rightarrow x = 39 \times \dfrac{{20}}{3}$
On solving it further, we get,
$ \Rightarrow x = {{39}} \times \dfrac{{20}}{{{3}}} = 13 \times 20$
$ \Rightarrow x = 260$

Therefore, the required number is $260$.

Note: Percentage of any number refers to a part of that number present in every $100$ of that particular number. For example, $1\% $ of oranges in a fruit basket means $1$ orange is present per $100$ of those fruits in the basket. The word ‘percentage’ comes from the Latin word ‘per centum’ which means ‘by a hundred’ thus essentially percentage always refers to the ratio of any number to hundred. It is a dimensionless number and has no unit of measurement.
$50\% $ of something means half, while $100\% $ of something means full.
Percentages can also be represented in the form of decimals, fractions etc. For example: a half can be written as:
$50\% $ in percentage
$0.5$ in decimal
$\dfrac{1}{2}$ in fraction.
In order to convert a decimal into percentage, we simply multiply that decimal with $100$ . For example:
$0.3 = 0.3 \times 100 = 30\% $
In order to convert a percentage into fraction, we simply divide that percentage with $100$ . For example:
$60\% = \dfrac{{60}}{{100}} = \dfrac{3}{5}$ .