Question

Identify is this is percent increase or percent decrease, then calculate percentage

Answer 1

Last year the chess club had 30 members. This year the club has 24 members.

Last year, the chess club had 30 members. This year, the club has 24 members. Since this year had less than last year ( 30 > 24), the percent will be decreasing.

To find the percent decrease, you have to use the following formula.

$\frac{Difference}{Original} \times 100$

Difference refers to the difference between the two numbers, 24 and 30. The difference between 24 and 30 is 6. Original refers to the original number, which is last year's amount of members in the chess group. Therefore, original = 30.

Substitute the numbers into the formula.

$\frac{Difference}{Original} =\frac{6}{30} =0.2$

To convert the decimal to a fraction, multiply the decimal by 100.

$0.2 \times 100 = 20 \%$

The answer is the number of chess members decreased by 20%.

____

Since I started off by identifying whether it was decreasing or increasing, I did the work a bit differently. When finding the difference, you would usually subtract 30 from 24, which results in -6. Above I used 6, but if you used -6, you would end up with a result of -20%, which means it decreased by 20%. They bot end up with the same result, but you don't always have to first identify whether it's decreasing or increasing.

____