{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/ask-what-the-percentage-is-a-percentage-of",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0244",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Ask what the percentage is a percentage of",
  "summary": "A percentage without its whole is an unfinished sentence.",
  "kind": "question",
  "body": "Identify the numerator, denominator and inclusion rule before interpreting the number. Eighty percent of respondents is not necessarily eighty percent of customers. The arithmetic can be correct while the sentence quietly changes the population it describes.",
  "limits": [
    "A clearly stated denominator does not remove nonresponse or selection bias."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-numerical-reasoning"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-B5AD1962D3F47F0D"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "A percentage expresses a quantity relative to a specified whole, with 100 as the reference scale.",
      "source_id": "RS-B5AD1962D3F47F0D",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "The definition cannot establish whether the chosen whole represents the relevant population.",
      "locator": "Definition of percent"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "A report makes a claim such as '80% agree' without making the group obvious."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "A clearly stated denominator does not remove nonresponse or selection bias."
  ],
  "example": "Eight positive replies from ten replies do not establish satisfaction among all two hundred invited customers.",
  "check": "You can complete the sentence with the actual counted group and period.",
  "question": "Who or what was eligible to enter the denominator? · Who actually appears in it, and who is missing? · Does the conclusion refer to that same group?",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-B5AD1962D3F47F0D",
      "title": "Prealgebra 2e, 6.1: Understand Percent",
      "url": "https://openstax.org/books/prealgebra-2e/pages/6-1-understand-percent"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0244",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0245",
      "type": "useful_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/separate-percentage-points-from-percentage-change"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-D976097B2A42D9AC",
      "title": "Make the numbers answer the right question",
      "url": "/collections/make-the-numbers-answer-the-right-question"
    }
  ]
}