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 both the LHS (left hand side) of both the equations have the same unit (%) we have,

\[\begin{align}
  & \dfrac{equation(i)}{equation(ii)} \\
 & \Rightarrow \dfrac{100\%}{x\%}=\dfrac{40}{16} \\
 & \Rightarrow \dfrac{x\%}{100\%}=\dfrac{16}{40} \\
 & \Rightarrow x=40\% \\
\end{align}\]
Therefore, x obtained as 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.