Sally earns $400 per week and spends 15% on transportation. How much does Sally spend on transportation every week?

If Sally
earns $400 per week and she spends 15% of her earnings on transportation, then Sally spends $60
per week on transportation.

Lets look at how to use multiplication to solve
this problem.

Percent means per 100. There are two other ways that 15% can be
represented that make it a little easier to see what this means.

As a fraction:

15% = 15/100

Here, we can see that we have 15 parts of 100. In Sallys case, for every $100 she
earns, $15 will be spent on transportation.

As a decimal:

15/100 = .15

To figure out what a
percentage is as a decimal number, divide it by 100.

15/100 = .15, or fifteen
hundredths. In Sallys case, for every $1 she earns, fifteen hundredths (or
15¢) of it will be spent on transportation.

Solving Sallys
problem:

The easiest way to solve this problem is to multiply
$400 by .15

Step 1. 15% = 15/100

Step 2. 15/100 = .15

Step
3. $400 x $0.15 = $60