Question

demetrius says that because percent means \out of 100,\ he needs to multiply 3.7 by 1/10 to write a percentage that is equivalent to 3.7. help demetrius understand his mistake.

Explanation:

Step1: Recall percentage - conversion rule

To convert a number to a percentage, we multiply it by 100, not $\frac{1}{100}$.

Step2: Correct conversion for 3.7

To convert 3.7 to a percentage, we calculate $3.7\times100$.
$3.7\times100 = 370\%$
Demetrius' mistake is that he used the wrong operation. He should multiply by 100 instead of $\frac{1}{100}$. When we multiply by $\frac{1}{100}$, we are actually finding the decimal - equivalent of a percentage (e.g., to convert a percentage to a decimal), not the percentage - equivalent of a number.

Answer:

Demetrius should multiply 3.7 by 100 to get 370% as the percentage equivalent of 3.7. His mistake was using $\frac{1}{100}$ for conversion when he should have used 100.