Video Transcript
Calculate 50 percent of one and a
half. Give your answer as a fraction.
In order to answer this question,
we firstly need to convert 50 percent into a fraction. As the word “percent” means out of
100, we can convert from a percentage to a decimal by dividing by 100. 50 divided by 100 is 0.5. This is equal to five-tenths. We can then simplify this fraction
by dividing the numerator and denominator by five. 50 percent is equal to
one-half. Next, we need to convert 1.5 into a
top heavy or improper fraction. There are two-halves in one whole
one. Therefore, one and a half is equal
to three-halves or three over two. We know that the word “of” in
mathematics means multiply. We need to multiply one-half by
three-halves.
When multiplying two fractions, we
multiply the two numerators and then the two denominators separately. One multiplied by three is three,
and two multiplied by two is four. We can, therefore, conclude that 50
percent of one and a half is three-quarters. We could also have shown this
pictorially. We began with one and a half and
wanted to calculate 50 percent or a half of this. One-half of a whole one is equal to
one-half, and one-half or 50 percent of a half is a quarter. Adding a half and a quarter once
again gives us a final answer of three-quarters.
