Any number can be represented as a whole number or a fraction, a decimal, a percentage, and a ratio. If any of these concepts trouble you, this post is for you.
Take the number 2
Whole number - 2
Fraction - 2/1 (remember, underneath any whole number, there is 1 in the denominator)
Ratio - 2:1 (Ratio is nothing but the denominator and the numerator of the fraction segregated by a colon sign)
Percentage - 2/1*100% = 200% (Multiply the fraction by 100%, do not forget the percentage sign)
Decimal - 2/1 = 2.00 (Just divide until you reach the desired number of decimal places. Here, I have kept two decimal places)
The trick is to start from any of the formats above and reach the others. Let’s take an example
3/2
This is an improper fraction; meaning when you divide 3 by 2, it will have a quotient and some non-zero decimal places. Therefore, this is not a whole number.
Ratio - 3:2 - Easy, same fundamental as in the previous question
Percentage - 3/2*100% - 150% ; Same fundamental, do not forget the percentage sign
Decimal - 3/2 = 1.50 ; I wanted to keep two decimal places as in the first example.
Now, let’s dig a little deeper. Let’s try to convert the decimal 8.50 into all other formats.
As there are non-zero decimal places, this number also is not a whole number. So now what? Where to start?
We know 8.5 is 8 1/2. This is a mixed fraction. When you have a mixed fraction at hand, the way to convert it to a Improper fraction is multiplying the quotient by the denominator and adding the numerator to that to obtain the numerator of the improper fraction.
Meaning,
8 1/2 => 8 - Quotient, 2- denominator of the mixed fraction, 1 - numerator of the mixed fraction
Multiply 8 by 2 and add 1 (multiplying the quotient by the denominator of the mixed fraction and adding the numerator of the mixed fraction) = 8*2+1 = 17 <- This is the numerator of the improper fraction
2 is the denominator of the improper fraction as well (whenever you see a mixed fraction, the denominator of that mixed fraction will be the denominator of the corresponding improper fraction as well)
So with all this, the mixed fraction 81/2 becomes the improper fraction 17/2
17/2 is something we can work with. See the below,
17:2 - Ratio
17/2*100% = 850% - Percentage
Okay, another one now.
Let’s try to convert 5:4 to all other formats.
This one is easy.
5:4 can be written as below
5 - numerator
4 - denominator
So the improper fraction is 5/4
Percentage - 5/4*100% = 125%
Decimal - 1.25
Let’s convert 225% to all other formats
225% = 225/100 (any percentage can be written as a fraction, always the denominator would be 100 because it’s a percentage and the numerator would be the number to the left of the percentage sign)
We can divide both the numerator and denominator by 25. This gives us the below
225/100 = 9/4 ; Bingo!!! Our friend, the improper fraction.
Ratio - 9:4
Decimal - 2.25
One last ride
â…” Let’s convert this into all other formats
Notice, that the fraction here is not an improper fraction. In improper fractions, the numerator is bigger than the denominator. However, in the above, it’s not the case; the numerator is smaller than the denominator. Therefore â…” is a proper fraction.
The first thing, and the easiest thing is to convert this to a ratio.
â…” = 2:3, same old fundamental
Decimal - â…” = 0.67
So the percentage - 0.67*100% = 67%
There you have it!
Today, you learned something vital. How to convert fractions (or whole numbers) to decimals, percentages, and ratios. And most importantly, to start from one format and go in rounds to convert into other formats.
This knowledge is crucial. Please let me know if you found this explanation helpful.
