• pyre@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I guess it’s easy to miss that m% just means ×m÷100

      6% of 50 means 50 × 6 ÷ 100, and because multiplication and division have the same order of operations you can switch them around. so it is also equal to 6 × 50 ÷ 100, in which you can simplify 50 ÷ 100 into 1 ÷ 2, but you could always do that: 50 × 6 ÷ 100 = 1 × 6 ÷ 2.

      this “shortcut” however is of extremely limited use. basically for taking a percentage of anything other than things that can very easily divide or multiply 100 like 50 in this example or maybe 10 or 500 it’s nearly useless.