this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2023
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You Should Know

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YSK - for all the things that can make your life easier!

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Why YSK: It helps when calculating percentages. If you want to find out what 2% of 20 is, do 20% of 2 instead and you'll get 0.4. So, 2% of 20 also equals 0.4.

Or, 12% of 25 can be alternatively written out as 25% of 12 instead, which would be 3.

Explanation: Commutative Property. So, 0.07 times 50 will always equal 50 times 0.07

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[–] zephyr 65 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Percentage is just a fancy form of decimal point. I just multiply them together then move decimal digit to the left twice.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

damn all these good tips for doing quick percentage math @.@

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

This is true for quite a few other things as well. For instance, “hertz” really just means “per second”. However, it’s easier to write/type “Hz” instead of “s^-1”.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

This isn't the only property that makes mental math easy. What is 3.5% of 62? Inverting the percentages doesn't really help but if we realized 3.5% = 1%+1%+1%+0.5% we have some easy math. This gives us 0.62+0.62+0.62+0.62/2=2.17

Also remember there isn't a teacher sitting over your shoulder to check your work, most of the time you do mental math, getting close is good enough. 62 is close to 60 and 3.5% is close to 4, and 60 x 4% is easy math to get an answer that will be a little less than 2.4.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Proof:

(x/100) * y = xy/100 = (y/100) * x

[–] seeCseas 1 points 2 years ago

Here's the technical mathematical explanation:

Yuh-doy!

(jk, thanks for actually posting proof)

[–] Guest_User 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Okay this is something everyone should know. Great tip!

[–] seeCseas 3 points 2 years ago
[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Damn... You just blew my mind O_O

[–] seeCseas 4 points 2 years ago

I aim to please ;)

[–] MisterFrog 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is actually so useful, thanks! I feel I used head maths less and less (I'm an engineer and rarely need to do a calculation without a calculator) but this will be an excellent sanity check, or a quick calc when out and about with prices or something.

Many thanks for pointing out something that ought to be obvious haha

[–] seeCseas 2 points 2 years ago

It wasn't obvious until I saw this also. No judgement!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

I could've used this while I was still in school. Sad!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

Man, if I heard or figured this out before the GRE, I would have aced that math portion.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I don't see how that explanation makes sense. It's not showing the same thing.

The example in the title is saying .50 times 7 is equal to .07 times 50 which is not just changing the order like in your explanation.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

They're leaving out one step.
.50 * 7 = 50 * 1/100 * 7 = 50 * 7/100

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Explanation: Commutative Property. So, 0.07 times 50 will always equal 50 times 0.07

Slightly better explanation: 7 × 1/100 × 50 will always equal 50 × 1/100 × 7 (the percentage sign (%) stands for /100)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] seeCseas 1 points 2 years ago
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