Question

What percent of 40 is 16?

Answer 1

Hint: We will first of all define the term Percentage. A Percentage is a number or ratio expressed as a fraction of 100. We will use this theory to determine what is to be calculated in the question.

Complete step-by-step answer:
In the given question, we have to tell what percent of 40 is 16.
A percentage is a number or ratio expressed as a fraction of 100.
To get this value, we make the assumption that 40 is 100% since it is our output value.
Let the percent we seek be x,

It follows that, 100% = 40.

In the same way x%=16.

Therefore, we have two sets of equations,
$\Rightarrow $ 100% = 40….. (i)
$\Rightarrow $ x% = 16….. (ii)

By simply dividing the equation (i) by equation (ii) and taking note of the fact that the LHS (left hand side) of both the equations have the same unit (%) we have,

${\dfrac{\text{equation(i)}}{\text{equation(ii)}}}$
$\Rightarrow {\dfrac{100%}{x%}=\dfrac{40}{16}}$
$\Rightarrow {\dfrac{x%}{100%}=\dfrac{16}{40}}$
$ \Rightarrow$ x = 40%

Therefore, x obtained is 40%.
Hence, we obtain that 40% of 40 is 16.

Note: The possibility of error in this question is that you can go for assuming the wrong term as the variable x and hence get an incorrect solution at the end. Therefore, always analyze the question properly once and then go for calculating the required.