if numbers are finite, why do we use /100 or 100% to measure limit?

Question

edit: if numbers are *INFINITE*. sorry, my thumb slipped

In: Mathematics

Answer 1

Because we have a base 10 numbering system, so multiples of 10 are generally easiest to use. Since multiples of 10 are so easy, some people in ancient rome used fractions of 100 quite often before there was a decimal system. They called it in latin “per centum” meaning “for each hundred,” and we kept that around, but shortened it to percent.

We don’t only use #/100 we also use #/10 or #/1000 etc, depending on how accurate you need to be.

Of course, there’s no reason you couldn’t use any number. 27/27 is equal to 100/100. (read as 27 divided by 27, 100 divided by 100) They both equal 1.

But now that we have a decimal system, you can use 0.## to represent a portion of one whole, with the whole being “1” of course.