How to Correctly Express Percentage

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SUMMARY

The correct method to express the percentage difference in electricity usage between Nic and Linda is to use the smaller value as the base for comparison. Nic uses 62,425 kWh, while Linda uses 78,636 kWh. The calculation for the percentage increase is given by the formula \(P = \frac{78636 - 62425}{62425} \cdot 100\%\), resulting in approximately 26%. Conversely, if calculating the percentage decrease for Nic compared to Linda, the formula \(P = \frac{16211}{78636} \cdot 100\%\) yields about 21%.

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Linda1
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I don't know how to express this: If Nic uses 62425 kwh of electricity and Linda uses 78636, does Linda use 20.6% more? How would this difference be correctly expressed as a percentage? Thanks!
 
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Hello and welcome to MHB, Linda!

If we let $P$ be the percentage in question, I would write:

$$P=\frac{78636-62425}{62425}\cdot100\%=\frac{64844}{2497}\%\approx25.9688\%$$
 
The percentage difference is the difference divided by the "base"
Here the difference is 78636- 62425= 16211.

Since this problem said "what percent more", the base is the smaller number, 62425.
\frac{16211}{62425}= 0.259 or 26%. Linda uses 26% more than Nic.

If the problem had said "What percent less does Nic use than Linda", the base would be the larger number, so we would calculate \frac{16211}{78636}= 0.21 or 21%. Nic uses 21% less than Linda.
 

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