Percents are used everywhere in our daily lives!  

Tips, taxes, raises, and rainfall!!
The trick is knowing which pieces of the problem have been provided to you.

Daily transactions tend to provide what we often call the "percent" and the "base",
leaving us to find the "percentage".   These are pretty straightforward.  We convert the percent and multiply!

Your purchases total $24.95.   If the sales tax rate is 6%, what is the total amount that you must pay?

(Easy, huh?   Convert 6% to 0.06 and multiply it by $24.95.   Did you remember add the sales tax to the total purchase and round to the nearest penny?)

So what is there to worry about?

(What if you're not provided with the percent and the base?)

Here's one:

Jasmine saves $2500 each year for her retirement.   That amount currently represents 8% of her total annual income.  What is her annual income?

(Did you get $31,250?   Do you see how this is different from the first problem?  And is she saving enough?)

And some are just a little bit sneaky.   You have to read the problem very carefully to make sure that you're not "caught".

The price of a school lunch increased from $2.50 to $2.75.    What was the percent of the increase?

(Did you get 10%?   I hope so.  If not, then it's back to the drawing board!)

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