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Bob has three and a half dollars in nickels and dimes .
Altogether, bob has fifty coins.
How many nickels does bob have?
How many dimes does bob have?
Explain how you figuered it out.
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Let N be the number of nickels.
Then the number of dimes is (50-N).
N nickels contribute 5N cents to the total.
(50-N) dimes contribute 10*(50-N) cents to the total.
Your "value" equation is
5N + 10*(50-N) = 350 cents (=$3.50)
Simplify and solve for N:
5N + 500 - 10N = 350,
-5N = 350-500 ---> -5N = -150 ---> N = = 30.
Answer. 30 nickels and 50 - 30 = 20 dimes.
Check. 30*5 + 20*10 = 350 cents. Correct !!
There is entire bunch of lessons on coin problems
- Coin problems
- More Coin problems
- Solving coin problems without using equations
- Kevin and Randy Muise have a jar containing coins
- Typical coin problems from the archive
- More complicated coin problems
- Solving coin problems mentally by grouping without using equations
- Santa Claus helps solving coin problem
in this site.
Read them and become an expert in solution of coin problems.
Also, you have this free of charge online textbook in ALGEBRA-I in this site
- ALGEBRA-I - YOUR ONLINE TEXTBOOK.
The referred lessons are the part of this online textbook under the topic "Coin problems".
The solution by "josgarithmetic is incorrect.