Eric has a riddle: "I am thinking of a fraction that is equivalent to 2525 and the numerator is 18 less than the denominator." What is Eric's fraction? Explain how you know. (2 points)

1 answer

Let's suppose the denominator of the fraction is x.

According to the problem, the numerator is 18 less than the denominator, which means the numerator is x - 18.

We are also given that the fraction is equivalent to 2525.

So, the equation representing the fraction would be (x - 18) / x = 2525.

To solve this equation, we can cross multiply to get x - 18 = 2525 * x.

Expanding the right side gives us x - 18 = 2525x.

We can now isolate the x term by subtracting x from both sides of the equation, resulting in -18 = 2525x - x.

This simplifies to -18 = 2524x.

Dividing both sides of the equation by 2524 gives us x = -18 / 2524.

However, since a fraction cannot have a negative denominator, we reject this solution.

Therefore, there is no valid solution for the denominator, and Eric's fraction does not exist.