Question

What is 17 % as a decimal?

Answer 1

Hint: To calculate the value of 17 % as a decimal, we should use the definition of percentage, i.e., specific kind of values per 100 values. Then, we will need to change this percentage into fraction first. Hence, we now can easily convert this fraction into decimal form.

Complete step by step solution:
We all know very well that the word ‘percentage’ is made up of a combination of 2 words, which are ‘per’, which means ‘for every’, and ‘cent’, which is equivalent to the number 100. So, we can very easily say that percentage refers to the number of specific values per hundred values.
In our problem, we need to find 17 % as a decimal.
According to the definition of percentage, 17 % means 17 out of 100.
So, we can write this mathematically as,
From 100, we need = 17
We know by the definition of a fraction that it represents a numerical value that is part of a whole. If a number of items are taken from a group of b items, then we can represent this as a fraction as $\dfrac{a}{b}$.
So, we can express 17 % as a fraction as $\dfrac{17}{100}$.
We know very well that the fraction $\dfrac{a}{b}$ is the same as a divided by b.
So, $\dfrac{17}{100}$ is the same as 17 divided by 100.
On dividing 17 by 100, we get 0.17 in the decimal form.

Hence, 17 % is expressed as 0.17 in the decimal form.

Note: We must know the definition of percentage and that of fraction to be able to solve this problem. We know that for a division by 100, we just need to move the decimal point to the left by 2, because 100 has 2 zeroes.