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Foundation - Percentages

infoWhy this? Percentages provide a common basis for comparing quantities and understanding financial change. Using multipliers, reverse calculations, and repeated percentage change enables us to evaluate discounts, interest, growth, and depreciation, and distinguish simple from compound change.

scheduleWhy now? Earlier work on ratio and proportion gives meaning to multipliers, while powers and inverse operations support compound and reverse calculations. This unit brings those ideas together at the end of Year 10, before fractions, decimals, and percentages are consolidated in Year 11.

neurologyYou need to know

  • A percentage means ‘per hundred’, so `p\% = \frac{p}{100}` of a quantity.
  • To convert a percentage to a decimal, divide by 100 (for example, `7.5\% = 0.075`).
  • To convert a decimal to a percentage, multiply by 100 (for example, `0.36 = 36\%`).
  • To convert a fraction to a percentage, write it as a decimal or an equivalent fraction out of 100 (for example, `\frac{3}{8}=0.375=37.5\%`).
  • Percentages greater than 100% represent increases beyond the original amount (for example, 150% is 1.5 times the original).
  • A percentage of an amount can be found by multiplying the amount by the decimal form of the percentage (for example, 12% of £80 is `0.12 \times 80`).
  • Decimal percentages (for example, 2.5%) are handled the same way: convert to a decimal multiplier (2.5% = 0.025) before multiplying.
  • ‘One quantity as a percentage of another’ is calculated using `\frac{\text{part}}{\text{whole}}\times 100\%`.
  • Increasing by `p\%` is equivalent to multiplying by the multiplier `1+\frac{p}{100}`.
  • Decreasing by `p\%` is equivalent to multiplying by the multiplier `1-\frac{p}{100}`.
  • A multiplier greater than 1 produces an increase and a multiplier between 0 and 1 produces a decrease.
  • Percentage change compares a change to the original value using `\frac{\text{new} - \text{original}}{\text{original}}\times 100\%`.
  • Simple interest adds the same amount each time period, calculated by `I = P\times r \times t`, where `P` is principal, `r` is the interest rate per time period (as a decimal), and `t` is the number of time periods.
  • The total after simple interest is `A = P + I` (equivalently `A = P(1+rt)`).
  • Compound interest increases by the same percentage each time period, so the total is `A = P(1+r)^n`.
  • Compound depreciation decreases by the same percentage each time period, so the total is `A = P(1-r)^n`.
  • A reverse percentage problem works backwards by dividing by the multiplier (for example, if a price after a 20% increase is £60, the original is `60 \div 1.2`).
  • For a percentage decrease, the reverse multiplier is `1-\frac{p}{100}` (for example, after 15% off, the multiplier is 0.85, so original `= \text{sale price} \div 0.85`).

rocket_launchYou must be able to

  • Convert between fractions, decimals, and percentages by using `\times 100`, `\div 100`, and fraction-to-decimal division, keeping place value accurate.
  • Calculate any percentage (including decimal percentages) of an amount by converting the percentage to a decimal and multiplying, giving answers to an appropriate level of accuracy for the context (for example, money to 2 decimal places).
  • Express one quantity as a percentage of another by forming the fraction `\frac{\text{part}}{\text{whole}}`, converting to a percentage, and stating the result with the correct units/context.
  • Increase or decrease an amount by a given percentage by selecting the correct multiplier `1\pm \frac{p}{100}` and multiplying once, rather than doing separate ‘find p% then add/subtract’ steps.
  • Use multipliers to solve multi-step percentage problems (for example, successive discounts) by multiplying the multipliers together before applying them to the original value.
  • Calculate percentage change by computing the difference, dividing by the original amount, multiplying by 100, and stating whether it is an increase or decrease.
  • Calculate simple interest totals over time by using `I = Prt` and `A = P + I`, ensuring the rate matches the time units (for example, per year).
  • Calculate compound interest or depreciation totals by using `A = P(1\pm r)^n`, identifying `r` as a decimal rate per period and `n` as the number of periods.
  • Solve reverse percentage problems by writing the forward multiplier, then dividing the final amount by this multiplier to find the original amount.


Revision Quiz

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