Bill's Learning

One of the things that I’m currently proud of is the 95 that I earned on my Calculating Percentages test.   This is a pretty important accomplishment for me mostly because I wasn’t all that sure that calculating percentages mattered, so I wasn’t putting a whole lot of effort into learning how to do it.  But when I was out at dinner with my dad, I saw him calculating percentages so he could figure out how much of a tip to leave for our waiter.   That made me interested and I started practicing with calculating percentages everywhere that I go.   What I’m proudest of is that I actually know why multiplying by a decimal makes sense when calculating percentages.  That means that not only can I answer questions about the process of calculating percentages, I know WHY that process works.  

One of the things that I learned how to do this year in math class was to calculate the percentage of something . I made a video using the calculator on my phone today to see if I could prove that I know what I am doing when it comes to calculating percentages: So did I do it right?   I THINK I did.  What I always try to remind myself is that I'm multiplying by a two digit decimal number.  So if I want seven percent of something, I multiply by .07.  That makes sense because percent means "a part of 100," and two digit decimals represent "hundredths."