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Here's a boring, unshmoopy question you'll find on an exam somewhere in life...

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Which fraction equals 65 percent?

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And here are your potential answers...

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OK, this question is really testing our Latin more than it's testing our math.

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Well, let's carpe diem, shall we?

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It's okay, we don't have to have taken AP Latin...

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we just need to recognize the word "per."

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...and acknowledge that it's not the sound a cat makes. Well, it is, but it's spelled differently.

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"Per" in this case refers to the relationship of one thing to another...

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...as in... so many hairballs thrown up PER cat.

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Okay, we might be reaching a bit... purrrrchance...

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The second part of the word is "cent" and also does not refer to the thing cats

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pick up when they're in heat.

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So... non-cat-related question: How many years are in a CENTury? Yep. One hundo.

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The root of the word is simply... one hundred.

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Or... a third of that movie about a bunch of Spartans.

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So 65 PERCENT is just 65 OF EVERY HUNDRED.

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And we could write that as a fraction as 65 over 100.

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But the question throws one little curveball at us -- they reduce the fraction.

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And actually... they're kinda being jerks about it, because one of the options is 100

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over 65... ...which might be correct in the southern

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hemisphere where water goes down the drain in the opposite direction...

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...but in North America, Europe and most of Asia, 100 over 65 is the INVERSE of the right answer.

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Hopefully we've done enough of these reducing

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fraction problems to notice the 5 and the 0 on the ends there... so we know they are

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divisible evenly by 5... ...65 divided by 5 is 13...

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...and 100 divided by 5 is 20. So we get 13 over 20 which is... ta-da!

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Answer C.

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Well done. You have got some major... cat skills.

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