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| Math Central | Quandaries & Queries |
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Question from London, a student: Ms. Werenich has twice as many dimes as nickels and 4 more quarters than nickels. If she has $\$4.50,$ how many of each coin does she have? What would the let statements be of this problem and can you solve it? |
Hi London,
She has more dimes than nickels and more quarters than nickels so I would let $n$ be the number of nickels she has and work from there.
She has twice as many dimes as nickels so she has $2n$ dimes. She has 4 more quarters than nickels so she has $n + 4$ quarters.
To complete the problem you need to consider the value of the coins she has. Since we are dealing with nickels, dimes and quarter I would convert the total amount she has to cents and say she has 450 cents.
Each nickel is worth 5 cents so the amount she has in nickels is $5 \times n$ cents. What is the amount she has in dimes? What is the amount she has in quarters? The total is 450 cents. Solve for $n.$
Penny
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