Hi,

Im working on something, but I dont know math, frankly.

Basically I'd like to ask you guys for an answer.

I have two percentages (14% and 12%). What I need to find out is what are those percentage's as a relationship between both figures, in the context of 100%.

So for example 14% is slightly more than 12%, so that would be 14%=60%, and 12%=40% (to make up the 100%)? But I really need to know the exact percentages.

Sorry if this is a bit of a cheek to ask, but I cant do it and its quite important for me to get this right.

Ka ... what?

When working with percentages I find it useful to think in terms of the expression's spoken meaning instead of concentrating on the numbers themselves. Every time you see a % symbol, say and think out of one hundred.

30% prefer chocolate ice cream.
becomes ->
Thirty out of one hundred prefer chocolate ice cream.

Another useful trick is to try thinking of the numbers in terms of dollars and cents. This works mathematically because one hundred cents equals one dollar in value.

HTH

I have just a guess at the meaning of the question:

If you are looking at two different totals X and Y and two parts Q and R such that:
Q is 14% of X
R is 12% of X
Q and R together form 100% of Y

So you want to know what percent is Q of Y. That is 14*100/(14+12) which is approx 53.85%

So R is 12*100/(14+12) which is approx 46.15%

I think that might be right. Because I've now got what figures they should come to, and they are 14=57%, and 12=42%, but theres some margin for error.

God Im useless at maths

Thanks guys

No. 57% and 42% are too far off. If those were supposed to be the answers, either I incorrectly guessed at the question, or you posted some incorrect numbers.

14.95 and 11.05 might considered be 57% and 42% of their combined total. But if the original data were 14.95 and 11.05, you would have said 15 and 11, not 14 and 12.

42 is the answer to the question of life the universe and everything, so it has already been demonstrated to be quite difficult to find the question when 42 is the answer

I like the think of percentages as a part of 1, so that 50% basically because 0.5. It's much easier that way. Assuming percent are converted into fractions of 1, this should work:

john,

I do think you were right, because 1% equals 1 person in this data, and I've got a couple of people missing from somewhere, and its a small sample. So that I think that might account for it.

if x is 100 then y is 14 + 12 = 26.
14 % of x is 14 * 100 / 26 = 53.8 % of y.
12 % of x is 12 * 100 / 26 = 46.2 % of y.

... to put it another way.

This will be true regardless of what x really is.

EDIT:
I think you can graph all possible values of x, y, and the unknown remainder of x as z using simple parametric equations.

x = t
y = 0.26t
z = 0.75t

But how to turn that into a real equation without including t is a different story. That's a bit more complicated and I think it involves sampling data from the graph and some other stuff.

The full equation would be in the form of
ax = by + cz + d

At least, I don't think there are any exponents to consider. And if you are capable of graphing parametrically, the full equation really doesn't mean anything at all. Additionally if you know any values of x y or z to be a real statistical value, you can find any of the other values.

Well, 14-12=2, and 2 is 1/6th of 12, and 1/6th of something is 16.66666666... percent of it, so 2.16666666...X = 100. 100/2.166666666... is 46.154 (rounded), so 46.154 and 53.846 percent