Final answer:
The word percent means 'per 100' and is used to express a ratio or fraction with a denominator of 100. The percent symbol is %, and percentage calculations involve dividing the part by the total and multiplying by 100. To convert a percent to a decimal, divide by 100.
Step-by-step explanation:
The word percent does indeed mean per 100. This is because a percent represents a ratio or a fraction where the denominator is always 100. The symbol for percent is %, thus when we see something like 25%, this means 25 parts out of 100, or 25/100 in fractional terms.
For example, if we have something that is 5% of a total, it is the same as saying 5 out of 100 parts, which can also be expressed as 5/100. When calculating percentages, we divide the part by the whole and multiply by 100 to find out how many parts per hundred we have. Therefore, 50% means half, or 50 parts out of 100, which can be simplified to 1/2 when converted to a fraction.
Moreover, a percent can be easily converted to a decimal by dividing the number by 100. For instance, to convert 20% to a decimal we would write it as 20/100 and then perform the division, which gives us 0.20.