We've all heard of Mr Ten Percent - he's the dealer or agent who
takes off 10% (or thereabouts) of your earnings as payment for
his services. Sometimes those services are worth 10% and sometimes
they're not. Sometimes we can choose whether to use his services
and sometimes we can't. Of course, we could equally meet Mrs
Ten Percent.
But what is ten percent - how do
we work out how much of our earnings will be taken away, and
whether we can afford it?
We can write down any amount of money using
a decimal point to show pounds and
pence.
To find 10%,
all we do is move all the numbers
one place to the right leaving the
decimal point where it is.
So 10% of £34.60 is £3.46
Here's
another one: Find 10% of £57.62
So
10% of £57.62 is £5.762 The 2 at the end just shows
that the answer is a bit more than £5.76, but not quite £5.77 - this should be
close enough for us, so we can just ignore the 2. Our answer is
£5.76
This one is a bit different: Find 10% of £146
So the answer is exactly £14.60
- we just ignore the 0, the same as we did with the 2 last time.
Did you notice anything about the last one? Compare
your answer with the last of our examples. Can you work out a pattern?
Next time you meet Mr Ten Percent, you may not
be able to keep your money from him, but at least you will be
sure how much he is taking!
Click
here if you want to work out an amount that's not exactly
10%.
