Answer: Barry's Swimwear sold a greater fraction of the bathing suits in stock as long as the store had fewer than 72 bathing suits in stock.
Explanation:
Barry's Swimwear sold 15 out of an unknown number of bathing suits in stock, so we can express this fraction as 15/x, where x is the total number of bathing suits in stock at Barry's Swimwear. Similarly, Philip's Sun Wear sold 5 out of 72 bathing suits in stock, so we can express this fraction as 5/72.
To compare these two fractions, we need to express them with a common denominator. One way to do this is to find the least common multiple of the two denominators, which in this case is 72. To express 15/x with a denominator of 72, we can multiply both the numerator and the denominator by a factor of 72/x. This results in the fraction 15*(72/x)/72 = 15/x. Similarly, we can express 5/72 with a denominator of 72 by multiplying both the numerator and the denominator by a factor of 72/72, which results in the fraction 5*(72/72)/72 = 5/72.
Now that we have both fractions expressed with a common denominator of 72, we can compare them directly. 15/x is greater than 5/72 as long as x is less than 72. This means that Barry's Swimwear sold a greater fraction of the bathing suits in stock as long as the store had fewer than 72 bathing suits in stock.