By: Chari Lakey

PERCENTAGES IN LIVING COLOR

HISTORY• ‘Per Centum’ is a Latin word that means ‘for hundred’. In English we know it as ‘parts out of a

hundred’.

• Percentages have gone all the way back to Ancient Rome.

• Before there was a decimal system created computations were only made out of fractions.

• By the Middle Ages denominations of money grew.

• Computations had a more standard denominator known as, 100.

• There isn’t one person that invented Percentages, but Giorgio Chiariano was the first that started using them in the late 1400’s

DID YOU KNOW?• The spacing is different in every language when it comes to the percent sign.

• French- the percent sign must be spaced with a non-breaking space.

• Chinese- the sign is almost never spaced. Most likely it is because Chinese does not even use spaces to separate characters or words

• Czech- the percent sign is spaced if the number is a noun, while the number isn’t spaced if it’s adjective.

PERCENTAGES IN BUSINESSES• In many businesses ‘Percentages’ are used to map out the plans of where the business

is, and where it is heading.

Companies use charts like these: Sales

1st Qtr2nd Qtr3rd Qtr4th Qtr

PERCENTAGES IN BUSINESSES• From Sales, Losses, Market Share, and more, percentages are used to help businesses

determine the changes they may have or go through.

• There are certain instructions to do with each number that will help determine whether your company had a increase or decrease.

• There are systems such as Business Percentage Increase or Decrease Calculator’s that helps people take out half of the work by just entering the previous amount with the current amount, then you will get your answer if you have increased or decreased.

INSTRUCTIONS ON CALCULATOR1. Note the first set of numbers as well as the second set. For this example, we will

compare sales of units between two different sales years. In the first year, 25 of 50 units were sold and in the second year, 35 of 50 units were sold.

2. Subtract the two numbers so that you have the numerical difference between the two sets. In this example, the difference is 10 units.

3. Multiply the difference by 100, which is the highest percentage that can be achieved. In this example, we will multiply 10 times 100 which yields 1,000.

4. Divide the result of step 3 by the total number of units that could have been sold, which in this case is 50. Following our example, this gives a result of 20, which we can interpret as 20 percent. We can say that the business used in the example had a sales increase of 20 percent from its first to second year.

PERCENTAGES EVERYDAY• Even though people don’t realize it, ‘Percentages’ are used in everyday life.

• From financial things in your home, discounts on shopping, even to your article of jewelry increasing in value, percentages are all around us.

• Staff.edu gives examples about relating to financial quotes and the interest charged to clients on loans, or interest paid for money invested, as a percentage.

• For example, "Housing Loans-4.95% p.a. for the first 12 months"Interest paid may be as Simple Interest or Compound Interest.

DID YOU KNOW?Companies such as Nordstrom, Oracle, and Cisco all areplaces based on commission. Meaning that the salespersonis paid a ‘percentage of sales’. The more the person sales thegreater their income.

PERCENTAGES• People forget about how often we use percentages.

• In our everyday life we constantly think about these things without realizing that we are putting great math skills to work.

• The coupons we use in grocery stores, or wanting to know how much a 50% sale will take off a $20 shirt, are our math skills about percentages being used.

• Whether you use a calculator or not, percentages are everywhere!

REFERENCES• “Business Percentages” Retrieved from: http://www.mathsaccelerator.com/number/

business-percentages

• “Business Percentage Increase Or Decrease Calculator”. Retrieved from: http://www.csgnetwork.com/businesspercentincreasedecrease.html

• “Everyday Use Of Percentages”. Retrieved from: http://www.staff.vu.edu.au/mcaonline/units/percent/pereve.html

• Grant, Peter. “How to use Percentages in Business”. Retrieved from: http://www.ehow.com/how_8182970_use-percentages-business.html

• Smith, D.E. (1951 1958).” ∨ History of Mathematics 2. Courier Dover Publications”. pp. 247–249.

• Wikipedia. (2014). “Percent Sign”. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percent_sign

REVIEW AND REFLECTION GUIDE

• Strengths (what you did well)

I think I did well on actually finding all the information I needed. Sometimes its hard to find all information you need to make sure your not repeating yourself. So I was able to find all and different ways that percentages are used.

• Weaknesses (where you struggled)

I struggled actually putting the words together. It’s hard making sure that you don’t constantly say ‘Percentages’ and ‘Businesses’, things like that. So that is where I feel I struggled the most.

• Opportunities (growth)

Now I have the chance to really understand how much we really do use percentages.

• Threats (complaints)

I don’t have any complaints honestly.

• What is the most important thing you learned from completing this project?

It now gives me a chance to apply myself everyday. Really understand and use my math skills. We always say in high school we are never going to use these skills, but ‘Percentages’ is a skill that will never die.

By: Chari Lakey

THE END