 Introduction to Percent. We're going to talk about what percent is and how money helps explain percent. So what does percent mean? You see shoes on sale for 30% off and you wonder what is 30% or what does it mean? When you see three zero percent sign, we write it out in English 30%. When you hear the word percent, think of two words that are put together to make one word. Per and sent are together percent. Percent is part of 100. You may know that scent comes from the Latin word centem, which means 100. Percent can be defined as part of 100. When you say per and sent slowly, it starts to make sense. Percent. Money helps us understand percent. In America, we write money amounts less than $1 in hundreds, or 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, and so on, up to 0.99. So 50% is 50 parts of 100. We say that 50 cents is one-half dollar. We write 50 cents as dollar sign 0.50 equals one-half dollar, or one over two dollar. One over two means 50%, and is also written 50% sign. Add 50 cents to 50 cents and also be written as dollar sign 0.50 plus sign dollar sign 0.50 equals dollar sign one-zero-zero, or one dollar. Look at the box and count the squares on the top, one through ten, and the squares on one side, one through ten, and we see that there are 100 total squares. So if we look at a large box with 100 small squares in it, in order to show 50 parts of 100 or 50%, we need to fill in 50 squares, which is what you see on the slide. 50 parts of 100 can be shown as 50 of 100 squares filled in. The box has 50 of the squares filled in, which is 50% or 50% of the box. Now we know that percent is the same as per 100, or part of 100. So we understand that 50% means 50 per 100, and 100% means 100 per 100, or 100 per 100, or one whole. Think of 100% as a whole pizza that has no part eaten yet. So 10% or one-zero percent sign has 10 of the 100 squares filled in, which is 10% or 10% sign of the box of squares.