this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
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A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment

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[–] FardyCakes@lemmy.world 206 points 1 week ago (3 children)

This is blowing my fucking mind like an artillery shell

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 116 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Yeah, I personally find it a lot easier to compute 13% of 17, rather than 17% of 13.

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana@piefed.world 59 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Same with 375% of 20 rather than 20% of 375.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 46 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Damn, it still worked. Holy shit.

[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 53 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The few times I've seen you on Lemmy, it takes me a few seconds to process your username. Today, I had my favorite misreading yet: pronounced Ivana footerall

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana@piefed.world 42 points 1 week ago

Thanks, now I can't unsee that, fartographer

[–] Derpenheim@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Are you a "silent fartographer"?

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Seems pretty vocal to me.

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[–] pyre@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I guess it's easy to miss that m% just means ×m÷100

6% of 50 means 50 × 6 ÷ 100, and because multiplication and division have the same order of operations you can switch them around. so it is also equal to 6 × 50 ÷ 100, in which you can simplify 50 ÷ 100 into 1 ÷ 2, but you could always do that: 50 × 6 ÷ 100 = 1 × 6 ÷ 2.

this "shortcut" however is of extremely limited use. basically for taking a percentage of anything other than things that can very easily divide or multiply 100 like 50 in this example or maybe 10 or 500 it's nearly useless.

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[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

It's because percent just means ×0.01 and multiplication can be rearranged

[–] wabasso@lemmy.ca 103 points 1 week ago (2 children)

x/100 * y = x * 1/100 * y = x * y/100

I never would have thought of it myself and still feel like I should have thought of it myself.

[–] chocrates@piefed.world 11 points 1 week ago (4 children)

So 37 % of 38 is equivalent to (37 * 38 ) / 100 ? Which I can almost do in my head.

37 * 4 is 148 I think, so 37 * 40 is 1480. Subtract 74 we have 1406. So we have 14.06?

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

You're hired

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[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 74 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This is great. I won't remember it when I will need it.

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana@piefed.world 36 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Just save the meme in the maths folder!

[–] db2@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You clearly don't have gigs of memes.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

(Maths folder is clearly for porn)

[–] TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)
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[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 66 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] minkymunkey_7_7@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (7 children)
[–] bingbong@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 1 week ago

53% of 23, next question

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[–] shoo@lemmy.world 44 points 1 week ago (2 children)

My dyscalculic ass trying to remember what 50% of 6 is

collapsed inline media

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana@piefed.world 15 points 1 week ago

Probably 5 tbh

[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 week ago

is tree fiddy

[–] Deflated0ne@lemmy.world 39 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm gonna track down all my HS math teachers and punch each and every one of them in the mouth.

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[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 38 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Legitimately new knowledge for me that will literally make my work easier. Wish I could give you more than 100% of 1 upvote, OP!

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[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 34 points 1 week ago (5 children)

That's because multiplication is commutative

taking a percentage of something essentially means multiplying it with a hundreath of the percentage
6% of 50 essentially means 50 * 0.06
or 50 * 6 * 0.01

and since
50 * 6 * 0.01 = 6 * 50 * 0.01
then of course
50 * 0.06 = 6 * 0.5

And we have the above

Yeah my brain just sees 5*6, and then I move the decimal. I never understood how people couldn't figure out tips when they wanted 20%.

If you live in the U.S. you do them quite often, multiply by 2. Want 10 multiply by .1... Half that and add it if you want 15. Whatever is easiest at that moment

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I prefer to keep it technically correct yet evil and confusing. 6% being a fancy way to write 0.06 or 6 * 1/100 means we can take 6 * 50 * 1/100 and simplify to 300 * 1/100 and then represent that as 300%.

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[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

6*50/100 = 50*6/100 if anyone is curious why this works.

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Or, more generally:

Taking X percent of something is the same as multiplying by X/100.

X percent of Y = Y(X/100)=(YX)/100

Y percent of X = X(Y/100)=(XY)/100

(YX)/100=(XY)/100

Percentages are indeed reversible.

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Yes, 47% of 47 is certainly much easier to determine when you look at it as 47% of 47! Genius!

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 24 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (13 children)

You can also

Multiply one side, divide the other to get the base number to get the base number to 100.

6% of 50 == 3% of 100 == 3

5% of 20 == 1% of 100 == 1

7% of 50 == 3.5℅ of 100 == 3.5

~~14% of 200 == 7% of 100 == 7~~

Edit* as pointed out below, this one was incorrect.

14% of 200 == 28% of 100 == 28

You don't have to stop at percentage either.

25 * 16 = 100 * 4

If you're doing addition, you can add and subtract.

27 + 13 = 20 + 20

Most of the difficulty is in realizing that one number or the other can be brought up to a nice round number, making the equation simple to do in your head. And obviously, just getting to around number on one side doesn't always make it easy on the other side.

I always loved screwing with math problems to make them easier, which is weird, because overall, I don't really care for math.

I also do shit like borrowing a couple of numbers to make the equation easy and then pull them back out.

392 / 4 == (400 - 8) / 4 == (100-2) = 98

376 / 4 == (400-24)/4 =100-6=94

Of course it goes up a level when the remainder isn't evenly divisible. But I still find it's something I can handle in my head.

371 / 4 == (400-29)/4= 100-7¼ =100-7.25=92.75

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[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

6/100 * 50 = 50/100 * 6
6 * 1/100 * 50 = 50 * 1/100 * 6

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[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago

Teaching stats and using percentages now and again, it's not really that useful of a tool most of the time since you aren't usually working with an easy number like 50 (Or 10, 20, 25, etc.).

Usually what I'm doing is breaking it down into manageable parts (factors), so 6% is 5% + 1% which I can usually do in my head regardless of the number (or if 5% hard, work in increments of 1%, which I can multiply by 6).

It's a pretty common strategy to with with factors. Just surprised how many of my students don't know it!

[–] phx@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 week ago

Huh. Learning a fun and cool math trick was not on the list of expected outcomes for today, but I'll take it!

[–] justme@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 week ago

commutable...

[–] serpineslair@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

Sweet, thanks Panzer of the Lake!

[–] Grerkol@leminal.space 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Most of the people explaining this still make it more complicated than it needs to be, imo.

I just think the symbol "%" algebraically means 0.01

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[–] Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago
[–] ZoDoneRightNow@kbin.earth 13 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Surprised how many people don’t know this. I suspect it is because people forget that percent literally means per 100 or /100 and the of is standing in for multiplication. So 6% of 50 is 6/100 * 50 or 6 * 50 * 1/100

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[–] Furbag@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (12 children)

This is the coolest trick since I learned about the "quick 20% tip on your tab" method. Take the total bill, move the decimal point one place over to the left, then multiply it by 2 to get 20% gratuity. I will sometimes round down on the change to make it closer to 18%. Also I only really need to do this when I'm drunk and can't maths.

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[–] deadinside91@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Today I learned, thank you wise panzer

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[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (10 children)

Yeah, now calculate 6% of 36

Edit: Replies itt make me believe that everyone on Lemmy is a chatbot

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