01
Percent of vs percent change
Increase 40 by 10% is treated as 10% of 40 with no idea whether to add.
Topic hub
Percentages
A percentage is a fraction of 100 — the same quantity spoken in a third language. Children struggle when ‘percent of’ and ‘percent change’ collapse into one move, or when they cannot go back to a hundred-grid.
Why this concept matters
School, shopping, and board papers all assume this language is fluent.
Misconceptions, in the order we see them
02
Always divide by 100 and hope
The procedure is detached from ‘out of 100’.
03
More than 100% is impossible
A quantity can be more than the original. The language feels illegal.
Which classes cover this
Related: Fractions · Decimals · Ratio and proportion · Integers · Algebra basics
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