The word percentage has its origin in the English percentage , a term used to write numbers under the guise of a fraction of a hundred. The symbol for this concept is %, which is called "percent" and translates to "out of a hundred. " For example: Ten percent is a percentage that is written as 10% and that is understood as ten out of a hundred. If it is said that 10% of a group of thirty people have red hair, the sentence assumes that three of those people are redheads.
The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) defines this resource as an 'x' percent. It can be said that the percentage is the quantity that, in a proportional way, refers to a part of the total or to the degree of useful performance that 100 units of a certain thing have under normal conditions.
Percent is also known as the term percentage that we are now addressing and that we can determine is one of the most widely used applications in the field of ratios and proportions. And it is that it helps us to carry out the comparison between quantities.
It is important to emphasize the fact that when calculating percentages, it must always be done using what are called directly proportional variables. What is meant by this is that it must be the case that if one of them increases, the other also increases and vice versa.
Specifically, when talking about percentages we have to underline that there can be three types of calculation of those. The first would consist of having to, from a total quantity, find the number that is equivalent to what is a partial percentage of that. An example would be having to calculate 50% of an inheritance of one million euros.
The second case would be the one that is about, starting from a total amount and a part of it, to establish what percentage that part is equivalent to. A case that can serve as an example would be knowing what percentage 75 corresponds to in the number 140.
The third and last case would consist of calculating, from a partial quantity and an established percentage, the total figure. Thus, we can know, for example, what total salary an employee charges based on the fact that we know that 500 euros is 60% of it.
A 15% increase in electricity service indicates that users will have to pay that surplus (15 units per hundred) in rates. Therefore, if the person paid $ 40 per month for that service, after the 15% increase, they will begin to pay $ 46. In other words, 6 is 15% of 40 (six is 15% of 40, that is, the additional money to be paid after the increase).
A 10% cut in wages, on the other hand, means that workers will begin to receive lower remuneration than they usually received. If a worker earned 1,000 pesos a month, from the cut he will begin to earn 900 pesos a month.