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)
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.