Okay, so someone asked me, or maybe I just needed to figure it out for some quick math I was doing, what’s 33 percent of 20000. You know, one of those numbers that pops up and you gotta work it out. I didn’t just want to punch it into a calculator, I like to get my head around it sometimes.
How I Chewed on This One
Alright, so the first thing that always clicks in my head with ‘percent’ is that it just means ‘out of a hundred’. So, 33 percent? That’s just 33 for every 100. No big mystery there.
And that word ‘of’ – in math talk, that’s pretty much always your cue to multiply. So, what I was really looking at was (33 over 100) times 20000. That’s the setup.
Getting My Hands Dirty with the Numbers
Now, I could’ve gone 33 times 20000 straight off, but that gives you a monster number to then divide. I’m always looking for the lazy way, the smart lazy way, you know? So I spotted that 20000 divided by 100 is a piece of cake. Just knock off two zeros from 20000. Wham, you get 200. Much nicer to deal with.
So then it was just 33 times 200. I still didn’t reach for the calculator. Thought I’d give the old grey matter a spin.
- My brain went: 33 times 2. That’s 66. Dead simple.
- Then, ’cause it was 200, not just a plain 2, those two zeros gotta come along for the ride. Tack ’em onto the end of 66.
And boom, there it was: 6600. Felt right. It looked right.
Making Sure I Wasn’t Talking Nonsense to Myself
I’m the kind of guy who likes to kick the tires a bit, even on simple stuff. So, I thought, let’s flip it. What if I go the decimal route? 33 percent is 0.33, right?
So then you’re doing 0.33 times 20000. Now, multiplying decimals can trip you up if you’re not paying attention. My thinking went something like: okay, 33 times 2 is 66. But I’ve got that 0.33. And the 20000. Hang on. It’s like this: 0.33 times 20000 is the same as (33/100) times 20000. Or, think 0.33 times 2, that’s 0.66. Then, multiply that by 10000 (because 20000 is 2 times 10000). And 0.66 times 10000, you just slide that decimal point four spots over. Gets you 6600. Bingo. Same number. Always good when that happens.
So yeah, 6600. That was my little wrestling match with those numbers. It ain’t exactly splitting the atom, but walking through it, step by step, feels more solid than just trusting a black box. That’s how I see it, anyway. Just sharing how I got there.