Question

What percent of 120 is 20?

Answer 1

16.67

Explanation:

Step 1: We make the assumption that 20 is 100% since it is our output value.

Step 2: We next represent the value we seek with x.

Step 3: From step 1, it follows that 100%=20.

Step 4: In the same vein.

Step 5: This gives us a pair of simple equations

Step 6: By simply dividing equation 1 by equation 2 and taking note of the fact that both the LHS

Step 7: Taking the inverse (or reciprocal) of both sides yields

Answer 2

Answer: 16.67%

Step-by-step explanation: I know that it's tempting to try to do percentage word problems in your head but this leads to a variety of careless mistakes. So I would advise always writing out the equation by simply reading the problem from left to right and solving it from there. That way you don't have to think about the problem at all until you get to your final answer.

So for this problem we have what percent. Since we know that percent means over 100 and what means x, what percent would be x/100. Of means times, 36 is 36, is means equals, and 81 is 81.

So we have x/100 · 120 = 20.

We can rewrite this problem as 120x/100 = 20.

To get rid of the fraction we multiply both

sides by 100 and we have 120x = 2,000.

Dividing both sides by 120, you can

use a calculator to find that x = 16.67.

This means that your answer is 16.67%.