Difference between Percent and PercentageDate: 04/26/2008 at 19:25:20 From: Sheldon Subject: difference between percent and percentage What is the difference between percent and percentage are there any difference? I think both are out of 100. Date: 04/26/2008 at 23:15:42 From: Doctor Peterson Subject: Re: difference between percent and percentage Hi, Sheldon. The only difference is in how they are used grammatically--and people differ even on that. I take "percentage" to refer to the concept, and "percent" to be a unit, much like "voltage" vs. "volts" in electricity, or "mileage" vs. "miles" in distance. The mileage you put on a car during a trip might be 40 miles; the percentage of people who expect gas prices to rise might be 40 percent (40%). Here is one dictionary's take on it (www.merriam-webster.com): Percentage: noun 1 a: a part of a whole expressed in hundredths <a high percentage of students attended> b: the result obtained by multiplying a number by a percent <the percentage equals the rate times the base> Percent: adverb : in the hundred : of each hundred The main difference is that they report "percentage" as a noun and "percent" as an adverb. That fits my understanding. Note that "percentage" is not used with a number, while "percent" is (and not without). You can read more about this topic in our archives: Percent vs Percentage http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/61067.html If you have any further questions, feel free to write back. - Doctor Peterson, The Math Forum http://mathforum.org/dr.math/ |
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