your phone says that 14.5% is equivalent to the decimal 14.5 explain why your friend is incorrect by comparing the fraction - 14.5 percent of 14.5

A percent is a proportion of something that can come from a variety of different numbers depending on what you are measuring. 14.5% is not the same as 14.5 because the 14.5% isn't necessarily 14.5 of a certain amount. For example, $14.50 of the $100 you have could be from your grandparents; making 14.5% of your money from your grandparents but a deposit of $145 into a bank account that already has $855 would mean that 14.5% of the money in that bank account was from that deposit but $145 does not equal $14.50. They just have the same proportion just different on different scales.

Hope this is what you were looking for.