PercentageCalculator .proWhat is 5 percent of 500?
Percentage Calculator
Visualizing Through Pie Charts
One way of visualizing 5 percent is through a pie chart. In this example, the orange slice represents the percentage of the whole pie.
5 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 5, percent and the full square represents the whole or 100%.
5 percent bar chart
Solution for 'What is 5% of 500?'
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 5 percent of 500. What are the steps?
Step 1: First determine the value of the whole amount. We assume that the whole amount is 500.
Step 2: Determine the percentage, which is 5.
Step 3: Convert the percentage 5% to its decimal form by dividing 5 by 100 to get the decimal number 0.05:
5100 = 0.05
Notice that dividing by 100 is the same as moving the decimal point two places to the left.
5.0 → 0.50 → 0.05
Step 4: Finally, find the portion by multiplying the decimal form found in the previous step by the whole amount:
0.05 x 500 = 25 (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 = 500 × 5100 = 500 × 0.05 = 25 (answer)
Therefore, the answer is 25 is that 5 percent of 500.