Percents
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Introduction to Percentages
Comparing percentages
Let's imagine you're shopping for apple juice. You find two different kinds—one contains 20% real juice, while the other contains 50% real juice.
![](img/Per1_3_juice.png)
Do you know which bottle has more real juice? Since both bottles are the same size, we can simply compare the numbers to see which percentage is larger.
![](img/Per1_3_juice_compare.png)
50 is larger than 20, so 50% is a larger percentage than 20%. The larger the number next to the percent sign, the larger the percentage.
What about these percentages?
7% and 17%
Which is larger? Again, we'll look to see which number is larger. 17 is larger than 7, so 17% is a larger percentage than 7%.
Comparing percentages with decimals
What if you had to compare two percentages like this?
5.4% and 5.5%
At first glance, it might be difficult to tell which percentage is larger. Remember, this is just another way of asking, "Which is larger, five and four-tenths of a percent or five and five-tenths of a percent?" Since the first number is the same for both fractions, we'll compare the numbers to the right of the decimal place.
![](img/Per1_3_tenthsB.png)
5 is larger than 4, so 5.5% is larger than 5.4%.
What about these percentages?
5.55% and 5.56%
Again, since the first number is the same, we'll compare the numbers to the right of the decimal place.
![](img/Per1_3_hundrethsC.png)
56 is larger than 55, so 5.56% is larger than 5.55%.