Neft Teacher · Learn It

Unit 4 · Standard 6.AT.4

Find and Compare with Percentages

Lesson 4-4 · Learn It — how the math works

Why we're learning this

It's Discount Day at the arcade. Different games are offering percent-off deals on ticket prices. The claw machine is 25% off its usual 60-ticket price, and the racing game is 40% off 80 tickets. You need to calculate the discounts to figure out how many tickets each game actually costs!

✱ Math Workbench

Learn It

How do I find the percent of a number?

A percent is a piece of a whole. The whole is called the base — it is the number right after the word “of,” and “of” means multiply. Your answer is the piece you get, called the part.

Picture itSee what the math looks like before you read about it

Five phone battery icons are lined up in order. The first is full at 5 bars out of 5, and each one after it has one fewer bar. The last icon has 1 bar left, and the caption says about 1 hour remains.
Where you see this in real lifeFive phone battery icons are lined up in order. The first is full at 5 bars out of 5, and each one after it has one fewer bar. The last icon has 1 bar left, and the caption says about 1 hour remains.

Watch me solve itI do — read one step at a time

The problem looks like this
Double number line: 100% is 60 tickets, and 25% is 15 tickets.Percent25%100%Tickets1560
  1. The claw machine costs 60 tickets, and it is 25% off. I need 25% of 60.
  2. Step 1 — find the (the whole): the number after “of” is 60.
  3. Step 2 — the as a decimal: 25% means 25 out of 100, so 25 ÷ 100 = 0.25.25 ÷ 100 = 0.25
  4. Step 3 — multiply:0.25 × 60 = 15
  5. The is 15 tickets. Check: 15 is about a quarter of 60, so that makes sense.

Watch out — mistakes students make here

  • 45 is the percent itself, not 45% of 360. Multiply 360 by 0.45 to find the part.
  • 180 is 50% of 360 — you rounded 45% up to half. Use the exact percent: 0.45 × 360 = 162.
  • 315 is 360 − 45 — that subtracts the percent as a plain number. Convert 45% to 0.45 and multiply: 0.45 × 360 = 162.

Try it with meWe do — you answer first, then check

Same steps, new numbers.

  1. Find 40% of 80. Step 1 — what is the ?
    Check this step
    (80, the number after “of”)
  2. Step 2 — 40% as a decimal?2 — 40%
    Check this step
    (40 ÷ 100 = 0.40)
  3. Step 3 — multiply: 0.40 × 80 = ?0.40 × 80
    Check this step
    (32)
  4. Does 32 make sense?
    Check this step
    40% is a little less than half, and half of 80 is 40. ✓

On your ownYou do — solve this one by yourself

Before you start, remember:

  • For each row: circle the (the number after “of”), write the as a decimal, then multiply.
  • That answer is the — how many tickets you save.

Solve: An arcade prize costs 240 tickets. If you have a coupon for 15% off, how many tickets do you save?

My answer

Stuck? Open one hint at a time.

Hint 1

Read carefully: the question asks how many tickets you SAVE — that's just the discount amount, not the new price.

Hint 2

The savings = 15% of the original 240 tickets. Convert 15% to a decimal and multiply.

Hint 3

Set up 0.15 × 240. (Shortcut: 10% of 240 is 24, and 5% is half of that — add them.)

Check my answer
✅ Answer: 36 tickets
15% of 240 = 0.15 × 240 = 36 tickets saved.

Turn & TalkSay it out loud with a partner

On Day the claw machine is 25% off its 60-ticket price. In '25% of 60,' which number is the (the number right after 'of'), and what are you trying to find?

Try starting with:

  • The base is ___ and the part I want is ___.La base es ___ y la parte que quiero es ___.
  • I need to find ___% of ___.Necesito encontrar el ___% de ___.
Use these wordspercentbasepartdiscount