15 is what percent of 12?

1 Answer
Geoff K.
Jan 16, 2017

15 is 125% of 12.

Explanation:

When translating a question from English to "math", it is useful to know what some key English words mean in math:

  • "is" means #=#
  • "percent" means #xx 1/100#
  • "of" means #xx#

With these key phrases in mind, it is not hard to translate the question:

#color(grey)"15 is what percent of 12"#
#15="   "x xx 1/100"   "xx 12#

Having translated the question into math, we can simplify and solve for #x#:

#"        "15"      "=(12x)/100#

#(""^5cancel(15) * 100)/(""^4cancel(12)) = x#

#(5 * cancel(100)^25)/(cancel(4)^1) = x#

#"    "5 * 25"    "= x" "=125#

So 15 is 125% of 12.

We can check this answer by asking, "What is 125% of 12?" (Using our translation method, this becomes #y=125xx 1/100 xx 12#.) You can see that this simplifies to finding the answer to #1.25 xx 12#, which is indeed 15.

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