5 million times 5 percent would be 5000000 X 0.05. When you do this on a calculator you get 250000 but when you do it on paper you end up with more zeros in the answer. When you multiply percents on paper what is the easiest way to figure out how many zeros go in your answer?
How do you multiply percents on paper? How to know how many zeroes?
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Dr.Peterson
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I would do this: 0.05 (5%) means 5/100; so we have to multiply by 5 and divide by 100. Dividing by 100 just removes two zeros; then multiply by 5: 5 * 50 000 = 250 000.
Steven G
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As pointed out, you should use 5/100 for 5%. But this still does not answer your question. Using pencil and paper when you multiply 5000000 by .05 you get 25000000 before you place the decimal. Now count from the right of 5 to where the decimal is which will be two places. Now in your answer of 25000000 you move the decimal 2 places to the left and get 250000. I answered you question because you asked, but in the end use 5/100 for 5%.
HallsofIvy
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You could do that but what Dr. Peterson was suggesting was to first divide 5000000 by 100 to get 50000, then multiply by 5.
Of course, 5/100= 1/20 so you could also divide 5000000 by 20. And you can do that easily by dividing by 10 first, which just moves the decimal point one place, to get 500000, and then divide by 2: 250000, the same as your calculator gave.
In the event that you have to discover a level of a number, this is what you do – for instance, to discover 35% of 240: Divide the number by 10 to discover 10%. Duplicate this number by what number of tens are in the rate you're searching for – for this situation, that is 3, so you work out 30% to be 24 x 3 = 72.