Fractions are comprised of a numerator and a denominator. The denominator represents the number of parts that make up one whole, and the numerator represents the number of those parts in the fraction. For example, 3/5 would mean that five parts equals one whole, and this fraction has three parts. If you wanted to find a percentage of a fraction, you need to know how to convert a percentage to a decimal and how to multiply that decimal by the fraction.
Divide the percent by 100 to convert it to a decimal. For example, if you want to find 20 percent of 5/7, first divide 20 by 100 to get 0.2.
Multiply the decimal by the numerator of the fraction. In this example, multiply 0.2 by 5 to get 1.
Place the result from the previous step over the original denominator. In this example, you would place 1 over 7 to find that 1/7 equals 20 percent of 5/7. If you want to convert to a decimal, simply divide the numerator by the denominator. In this example, 5/7 equals 0.7143.
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Mark Kennan is a writer based in the Kansas City area, specializing in personal finance and business topics. He has been writing since 2009 and has been published by "Quicken," "TurboTax," and "The Motley Fool."
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