To find out how many hours of commercials a person would see after watching 12.5 hours of television, we can calculate 36% of 12.5 hours.
First, convert the percentage to a decimal:
\[ 36% = \frac{36}{100} = 0.36 \]
Next, multiply the total hours of television watched by this decimal:
\[ \text{Hours of commercials} = 12.5 \text{ hours} \times 0.36 \]
Calculating this gives:
\[ \text{Hours of commercials} = 12.5 \times 0.36 = 4.5 \text{ hours} \]
Therefore, a person would see 4.5 hours of commercials after watching 12.5 hours of television.