40% * x = 24
We simply the 40% into either 2/5 (40/100) or 0.40. I will show both ways:
(using 2/5)
(2/5)x = 24
We multiply each side by 5, and divide by 2 (or multiply by 5/2)
(5/2)(2/5)x = 24(5/2) = (10/10)x = 120/2
Simplified, we get x = 60. So 40% of 60 is 24.
Here is the same problem again, this time written out with 0.40 instead of 2/5
0.40(x) = 24
(I like to multiply by 100 to get an even 40 instead of .40, so I am going to multiply each side by 100 to make things a little easier).
40x = 2400
Divide each side by 40 to isolate x
x = 2400/40
We simply to get x = 60, the same answer. soo 24 is 40% of 60 :)