Alright so yesterday I was helping my nephew with his math homework, right? Kid came up to me all confused askin’ how to figure out what percent 43 is out of 50. Felt like one of those things you should know instantly but my brain kinda blanked for a sec. Decided to actually write it down step-by-step myself instead of just telling him.
My Messy Math Adventure
First thing I did? Grabbed a napkin ’cause all my notebooks were buried somewhere. Wrote down “43/50” real big. Figured percentages are just fractions times 100, so that seemed like the startin’ point. Tried doin’ the division straight in my head – 43 divided by 50. Man, that felt awkward.
Got the calculator out on my phone. Punched in 43 ÷ 50. Screen showed 0.86. Okay, progress! Remembered you gotta multiply this decimal by 100 to get the percentage sign. So did 0.86 × 100. Boom – 86 pops up. So that meant 86%?
Double-checked it the old-school way, just to be sure. Thought about how 50 is like half of 100. So if something was 50 out of 50, that’s obviously 100%, yeah? Each part then is like… wait. Started thinkin’ 50 divided by 50 is 1, times 100 is 100%. Too obvious. Needed to find how much each one of those 50 parts is worth percentage-wise.
Took 100% ÷ 50 = 2%. Okay, so every single one of those 50 pieces is worth 2% of the whole thing. Then thought, if one piece is 2%, then 43 pieces are… calculated 43 × 2. Got 86 again. Phew! Felt better knowin’ both ways landed me in the same spot.
Realized later I could’ve just simplified the fraction first. 43/50 doesn’t get any simpler though, right? Both are prime? Nah, 43 is prime, 50 ain’t. Anyway, pointless detour. The calculator way was dead simple.
What I Figured Out
- Percent just means “out of 100”. Always.
- For “what percent is number A of number B?” – Do (A ÷ B) × 100. Every time.
- 43 divided by 50 equals 0.86.
- 0.86 times 100 equals 86.
- So yeah, 43 is 86% of 50. Kid seemed happy enough with that answer.
Honestly felt kinda silly needing the calculator for such a straightforward thing, but hey, sometimes you just gotta work it through step-by-step, mistakes and all, to really get it solid. Better to be slow and sure than pretend you know it when you don’t!
