QUESTION

What percent of 40 is 16?

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.

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.