What is 2 percent of 400?
Percentage Calculator
Visualizing Through Pie Charts
One way of visualizing 2 percent is through a pie chart. In this example, the orange slice represents the percentage of the whole pie.
2 percent pie chart
Visualizing Percentage with Bar Charts
Another way of visualizing percentages is using a bar chart like the one below. The orange bar represents 2, percent and the full square represents the whole or 100%.
2 percent bar chart
Solution for 'What is 2% of 400?'
In the following example, consider that:
- The percentage figure is represented by X%
- The whole amount is represented by W
- The portion amount or part is represented by P
Solution Steps
The following question is of the type "How much X percent of W", where W is the whole amount and X is the percentage figure or rate".
Let's say that you need to find 2 percent of 400. What are the steps?
Step 1: First determine the value of the whole amount. We assume that the whole amount is 400.
Step 2: Determine the percentage, which is 2.
Step 3: Convert the percentage 2% to its decimal form by dividing 2 by 100 to get the decimal number 0.02:
2100 = 0.02
Notice that dividing by 100 is the same as moving the decimal point two places to the left.
2.0 → 0.20 → 0.02
Step 4: Finally, find the portion by multiplying the decimal form found in the previous step by the whole amount:
0.02 x 400 = 8 (answer).
The steps above are expressed by the formula:
P = W × X%100
This formula says that:
"To find the portion or the part from the whole amount, multiply the whole by the percentage, then divide the result by 100".
The symbol % means the percentage expressed in a fraction or multiple of one hundred.
Replacing these values in the formula, we get:
P = 400 × 2100 = 400 × 0.02 = 8 (answer)
Therefore, the answer is 8 is that 2 percent of 400.