this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
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[–] FardyCakes@lemmy.world 207 points 1 week ago (3 children)

This is blowing my fucking mind like an artillery shell

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 116 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Yeah, I personally find it a lot easier to compute 13% of 17, rather than 17% of 13.

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana@piefed.world 60 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Same with 375% of 20 rather than 20% of 375.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 47 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Damn, it still worked. Holy shit.

[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 54 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The few times I've seen you on Lemmy, it takes me a few seconds to process your username. Today, I had my favorite misreading yet: pronounced Ivana footerall

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana@piefed.world 42 points 1 week ago

Thanks, now I can't unsee that, fartographer

[–] Derpenheim@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Are you a "silent fartographer"?

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[–] pyre@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I guess it's easy to miss that m% just means ×m÷100

6% of 50 means 50 × 6 ÷ 100, and because multiplication and division have the same order of operations you can switch them around. so it is also equal to 6 × 50 ÷ 100, in which you can simplify 50 ÷ 100 into 1 ÷ 2, but you could always do that: 50 × 6 ÷ 100 = 1 × 6 ÷ 2.

this "shortcut" however is of extremely limited use. basically for taking a percentage of anything other than things that can very easily divide or multiply 100 like 50 in this example or maybe 10 or 500 it's nearly useless.

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[–] wabasso@lemmy.ca 104 points 1 week ago (2 children)

x/100 * y = x * 1/100 * y = x * y/100

I never would have thought of it myself and still feel like I should have thought of it myself.

[–] chocrates@piefed.world 12 points 1 week ago (4 children)

So 37 % of 38 is equivalent to (37 * 38 ) / 100 ? Which I can almost do in my head.

37 * 4 is 148 I think, so 37 * 40 is 1480. Subtract 74 we have 1406. So we have 14.06?

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[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 75 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This is great. I won't remember it when I will need it.

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana@piefed.world 37 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Just save the meme in the maths folder!

[–] db2@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (4 children)

You clearly don't have gigs of memes.

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[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 69 points 1 week ago (9 children)
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[–] shoo@lemmy.world 46 points 1 week ago (2 children)

My dyscalculic ass trying to remember what 50% of 6 is

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana@piefed.world 16 points 1 week ago

Probably 5 tbh

[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 11 points 1 week ago

is tree fiddy

[–] Deflated0ne@lemmy.world 41 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm gonna track down all my HS math teachers and punch each and every one of them in the mouth.

[–] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I’m gonna track down all my HS math teachers and punch each and every one of them in the mouth.

Understandable if you're in the U.S., where Maths teachers don't have to have any Maths qualifications. Other places, where you do have to have Maths qualifications, we teach this.

[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 40 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Legitimately new knowledge for me that will literally make my work easier. Wish I could give you more than 100% of 1 upvote, OP!

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[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 34 points 1 week ago (8 children)

That's because multiplication is commutative

taking a percentage of something essentially means multiplying it with a hundreath of the percentage
6% of 50 essentially means 50 * 0.06
or 50 * 6 * 0.01

and since
50 * 6 * 0.01 = 6 * 50 * 0.01
then of course
50 * 0.06 = 6 * 0.5

And we have the above

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[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

6*50/100 = 50*6/100 if anyone is curious why this works.

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[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

6/100 * 50 = 50/100 * 6
6 * 1/100 * 50 = 50 * 1/100 * 6

[–] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

6/100 * 50 = 50/100 * 6

=6x5 /10 (2 zeroes cancel out)

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Yes, 47% of 47 is certainly much easier to determine when you look at it as 47% of 47! Genius!

[–] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 1 points 4 days ago

Yes, 47% of 47 is certainly much easier to determine

And your real life example of a 47% discount on a $47 item is... where exactly?

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 24 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (13 children)

You can also

Multiply one side, divide the other to get the base number to get the base number to 100.

6% of 50 == 3% of 100 == 3

5% of 20 == 1% of 100 == 1

7% of 50 == 3.5℅ of 100 == 3.5

~~14% of 200 == 7% of 100 == 7~~

Edit* as pointed out below, this one was incorrect.

14% of 200 == 28% of 100 == 28

You don't have to stop at percentage either.

25 * 16 = 100 * 4

If you're doing addition, you can add and subtract.

27 + 13 = 20 + 20

Most of the difficulty is in realizing that one number or the other can be brought up to a nice round number, making the equation simple to do in your head. And obviously, just getting to around number on one side doesn't always make it easy on the other side.

I always loved screwing with math problems to make them easier, which is weird, because overall, I don't really care for math.

I also do shit like borrowing a couple of numbers to make the equation easy and then pull them back out.

392 / 4 == (400 - 8) / 4 == (100-2) = 98

376 / 4 == (400-24)/4 =100-6=94

Of course it goes up a level when the remainder isn't evenly divisible. But I still find it's something I can handle in my head.

371 / 4 == (400-29)/4= 100-7¼ =100-7.25=92.75

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[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

Teaching stats and using percentages now and again, it's not really that useful of a tool most of the time since you aren't usually working with an easy number like 50 (Or 10, 20, 25, etc.).

Usually what I'm doing is breaking it down into manageable parts (factors), so 6% is 5% + 1% which I can usually do in my head regardless of the number (or if 5% hard, work in increments of 1%, which I can multiply by 6).

It's a pretty common strategy to with with factors. Just surprised how many of my students don't know it!

[–] justme@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 week ago

commutable...

[–] phx@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 week ago

Huh. Learning a fun and cool math trick was not on the list of expected outcomes for today, but I'll take it!

[–] serpineslair@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

Sweet, thanks Panzer of the Lake!

[–] Grerkol@leminal.space 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Most of the people explaining this still make it more complicated than it needs to be, imo.

I just think the symbol "%" algebraically means 0.01

[–] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 1 points 4 days ago

I just think the symbol “%” algebraically means 0.01

Warm. It actually means "per 100", hence the slash to represent a vinculum and the 2 zeroes. Of course in decimal that converts to 0.01.

[–] ZoDoneRightNow@kbin.earth 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Surprised how many people don’t know this. I suspect it is because people forget that percent literally means per 100 or /100 and the of is standing in for multiplication. So 6% of 50 is 6/100 * 50 or 6 * 50 * 1/100

[–] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

people forget that percent literally means per 100 or /100

Yes

the of is standing in for multiplication

No. The M is for Multiplication. O is for Order, as in "to the order of", as in Exponents.

[–] ZoDoneRightNow@kbin.earth 1 points 3 days ago

There is no 'M' or 'O' in the statement "six percent of fifty" There also is no exponentiation so I have no idea what you are on about

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[–] Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago
[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (8 children)

Yeah, now calculate 6% of 36

Edit: Replies itt make me believe that everyone on Lemmy is a chatbot

[–] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, now calculate 6% of 36

6x3x10 + 6x6, move decimal point 2 places to the left

Replies itt make me believe that everyone on Lemmy is a chatbot

I'm a Maths teacher :-)

[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

6x3x10 + 6x6, move decimal point 2 places to the left

Wow, that's nice! I like it.

I'm a Maths teacher :-)

I just hope that you are not starting grading your students with the phrase "You're absolutely right!"

[–] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 1 points 3 days ago

Wow, that’s nice! I like it

It's called grouping. It's part of the curriculum here. Break the arithmetic into easily calculated groups.

I just hope that you are not starting grading your students with the phrase “You’re absolutely right!”

I'm not in the U.S. no. We still require teachers to be qualified here (Masters)! 😂

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