Math Playground
Activities

Parking Spaces

How full is the lot? Count, estimate, fraction it.

Pick a parking lot. Count total spaces, then count occupied ones. Express as a fraction, decimal, percentage.

Edit the data — the chart follows
709 am9212 pm853 pm406 pm

Turning a count into three numbers

  • Count total spaces, then count occupied spaces.
  • Write it as a fraction: occupied / total.
  • Simplify, then divide to get the decimal.
  • Multiply by 100 for the percentage — three names for one ratio.
Your turn

A lot has 150 spaces and 96 are taken. What percent is full?

Sample the same lot at several times and plot the percentages in order — that line is a time series, the backbone of real demand data.

Try it

84 occupied / 120 total

Fraction 84/120 = 7/10. Decimal 0.7. Percentage 70%. Three ways to say the same thing.

Repeat at the same lot at three different times. Plot the results — that's your first time-series.