Percentages of amounts

Finding 20% of 50

Let's start by working out 10% of 50

10% of 50 = 50 ÷ 10 = 5

Now working out 20% is easy:

20% = 10% + 10% = 5 + 5 = 10

Let’s look at a harder example

Find 35% of 80

Let’s start again by working out 10%

10% of 80 = 80 ÷ 10 = 8

Now work out 5%:  5% is half 10% so we can divide our answer for 10% by 2

5% = 8 ÷ 2 = 4

Now working out 35% is easy:

35% = 10% + 10% + 10% + 5% = 8 + 8 + 8 + 4 = 28