Final answer:
Percentage of completion refers to the measurement of progress of a task or project, expressed as a ratio of what has been completed to the total amount, multiplied by 100 to get a percentage. This method of calculation can apply across various contexts, from educational achievements to scientific measurements like chemical reactions.
Step-by-step explanation:
Percentage of Completion
The term percentage of completion generally refers to a method of recognizing the revenue and expenses of a long-term project at various stages based on the degree of completion. In mathematics, it can relate to any calculation that measures progress as a fraction of the total, expressed as a percentage. The concept of a percentage is a mathematical representation where a ratio is expressed as a fraction of 100. When discussing percentages, we often refer to a part of a whole, where the whole is divided into 100 equal parts.
To calculate the percentage of completion, or any percentage, one would divide the part (the portion that is complete) by the total possible amount, and then multiply by 100. For instance, if you have completed 25 out of a total of 50 steps, the percentage completed is calculated as 25 / 50 x 100, resulting in a 50% completion rate.
In a more practical context, if a class consisted of 100 students and 24 students tested positive for a test, the percentage of positive students would be 24%. This could also be demonstrated through an equivalent fraction method, where 24/100 would represent the percentage directly.
In scientific contexts such as chemistry, the percentage composition of a substance can be calculated in a similar manner. For example, finding the percentage of a particular element within a compound would involve dividing the mass of that individual element by the total molecular mass of the compound and then multiplying by 100.
A practical example in science is the completion rate of a chemical reaction. If a reaction is 97% complete after 5 half-lives, and reaches 100% completion after 10 half-lives, this uses the percentage of completion to describe the reaction's progress.