Just wondering... Why is the symbol % used for percent?

Answer 1

Percent has been used since the end of the fifteenth century in business problems such as computing interest, profit and loss, and taxes. However, the idea had its origin much earlier. When the Roman emperor Augustus levied a tax on all goods sold at auction, centesima rerum venalium, the rate was 1/100. Other Roman taxes were 1/20 on every freed slave and 1/25 on every slave sold. Without recognising percentages as such, they used fractions easily reduced to hundredths.

In the Middle Ages, as large denominations of money came to be used, 100 became a common base for computation. Italian manuscripts of the fifteenth century contained such expressions as "20 p 100" and "x p cento" to indicate 20 percent and 10 percent. When commercial arithmetics appeared near the end of that century, use of percent was well established. For example, Giorgio Chiarino (1481) used "xx. per .c." for 20 percent and "viii in x perceto" for 8 to 10 percent. During the sixteenth and seventeenth century, percent was used freely for computing profit and loss and interest. (NCTM p146,147}

In its primitive form the per cent sign is found in the 15th century manuscripts on commercial arithmetic, where it appears as this symbol after the word "per" or after the letter "p" as a contraction for "per cento."

The percent sign, %, has probably evolved from a symbol introduced in an anonymous Italian manuscript of 1425. Instead of "per 100," "P cento," which were common at that time, this author used the symbol.

By about 1650, part of this symbol had been changed . Finally, the "per" was dropped, leaving this symbol to stand alone, and this in turn became %.

The solidus form (%) is modern.

This symbol stands for "per thousand".



It is natural to expect that percentage will develop into per millage, and indeed this has not only begun, but it has historic sanction. Bonds are quoted in New York using this symbol, and so in other commercial lines. At present, indeed, the symbol is used in certain parts of the world, notably by German merchants, to mean "per mill," a curious analogue to % developed without regard to the historic meaning of the latter symbol.

Answer 2

I'm guessing since... when you write 16%.. you write 16/100. so percent means something over 100. so you kinda see the 100 in % right? there are two 0s and one 1. I dont know that's my guess. ^_^

Answer 3

'Cause it looks so dam fine on a calculator and it conserves on natural gas emissions...