A % question

afatbollix

Hi

Struggling with this one.

I need to work out how much of a % 300k is of a total budget of 9.2 billion.

Its lower than 1% but I cant work it out

Any help

Thanks
Mr Bollix

bnt

afatbollix wrote: »

Hi

Struggling with this one.

I need to work out how much of a % 300k is of a total budget of 9.2 billion.

Its lower than 1% but I cant work it out

Any help

Thanks
Mr Bollix

On a scientific calculator you just have to express the numbers in scientific notation: a K = 10^3, a billion is 10^9. Then you say 300x10^3 ÷ 9.2 x 10^9. That gives you the ratio, multiply that by 100 to give you a %age.

Or if you have a plain calculator or are doing it by hand: express the numbers in equal powers of ten:
300k = 300 x 10^3 = 0.3 x 10^6
9.2B = 9.2 x 10^9 = 9200 x 10^6
Now you can just say 0.3 ÷ 9200, then x 100 for a %age. (Or use the calculator % key if you have one.)

afatbollix

Cheers mate I got 0.003 as my final answer which sounds about right

Thanks

Michael Collins

Not sure how much precision you need in the answer, but 0.00326 would be a more accurante value - see here (the 'e' symbol is short hand for 'exponential' and it just means "multiply by ten to the power of").

bnt

I'm so used to using software that I just threw in "^" meaning "to the power of" without explaining that. Programs like Excel also use "*" and "/" instead of "×" and "÷" , because there are no "×" and "÷" keys on the keyboard. So "e" is short for "*10^". :cool: