Do you know why some "as...as" phrases indicate multiplication?
For example, ? is 60% as much as $\$30.$ This is equivalent to 60% X $\$30$ = $\$18.$ How does this make sense?
I saw this example in an old textbook on business mathematics, but the author did not explain why it is equivalent to multiplication.
This is a good question - this sort of thing shouldn't be taken for granted!
"Sixty per cent" is short for "sixty per centum", or "sixty per hundred." This indicates a whole-number ratio of 60:100 or 3:5, which is represented by the lowest-terms fraction 3/5 and the exact decimal 0.6.
"$\$30$ is thirty times a hundred cents, so the answer is thirty times sixty cents"
"$\$30$ has a hundred thirty-cent chunks, so the answer has sixty thirty-cent chunks"
We are really dividing and multiplying here: dividing is the same as multiplying by a unit-numerator fraction of the form 1/n, and multiplying by a fraction m/n (or the equivalent decimal) carries out the multiplication and the division in one go.