Steps for converting fractions to percentages.
The steps for converting fractions to percentages vary depending on whether you are using a hand-held calculator or you are doing the conversion manually.
Using a Hand-held Calculator
If you are using a hand-held calculator, you simply divide the top number of the fraction by the bottom number of the fraction to get the decimal equivalent and then multiply that result by 100.
For example, if you wish to convert 9/12 into a percentage, you would plug 9 ÷ 12 into the calculator, which would give the quotient 0.75. If you then multiply 0.75 by 100, the result would be equal to 75%.
Using a Manual Calculations on Paper
On the other hand, if you are doing the conversion manually on a piece of paper or a worksheet, you can save time by first reducing the fraction into simplest form.
Using the fraction used in the previous example, the first step would be to reduce 9/12 to simplest form, like this:
| 9 | = | 9 ÷ 3 | = | 3 |
| 12 | 12 ÷ 3 | 4 |
Once you have reduced the fraction, the next step is to convert the fraction to a decimal using long division, like this:
| 0 | 7 | 5 | ||||
| 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 goes into 3 0 times --> | 0 | |||||
| Add zero --> | 3 | 0 | ||||
| 4 goes into 30 7 times --> | 2 | 8 | ||||
| 30 − 28 = 2 & add zero --> | 2 | 0 | ||||
| 4 goes into 20 5 times evenly --> | 2 | 0 | ||||
| Remainder is 0, done --> | 0 | 0 |
Continue adding zeros until the remainder is zero, or until the desired number of decimal places is reached, then simply move the decimal point 2 places to the right to convert the decimal to a percentage. Note that the red vertical line indicates where the decimal point will initially be inserted, whereas the blue vertical line indicates where you will move the decimal point to in order to complete the fraction to percent conversion.
So after simplifying 9/12 to 3/4, and then using long division on the simplified fraction, we can see that the fraction 9/12 converts to 75%.
