Video: Converting Percentages to Fractions in the Simplest Form

Video Transcript

If the sales tax for a city is eight percent, express this as a fraction in its simplest form.

Now in this question, eight percent represents a proportion of a whole thing. So what they’re looking for, is a fraction that represents that same proportion of something. And then you- they want you to simplify that fraction.

Now to find eight percent of a value, what we do, is multiply that value by eight over a hundred. Eight percent means eight hundredths of something. So the fraction that represents the same proportion of the whole thing as eight percent, is eight over a hundred. Now eight over a hundred, we can divide the top and the bottom by two. In fact, we could divide the top and bottom by four.

Now fours into a hundred go twenty-five times, four times twenty-five is a hundred. And fours go into eight two times. So this is equivalent to two over twenty-five.

Now two over twenty-five won’t simplify any further, so that’s our answer. The fraction in its simplest form, that represents the same proportion as eight percent, is two over twenty-five.