SOLUTION: I got stuck on this problem here: When Jim cleaned out the fountain in front of the mayor's house, he found 20 nickels and quarters. The mixture of coins totaled up to $2.60. How m

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Question 127486: I got stuck on this problem here: When Jim cleaned out the fountain in front of the mayor's house, he found 20 nickels and quarters. The mixture of coins totaled up to $2.60. How many quarters did Jim find?
Thanks in advance!
Found 2 solutions by rapaljer, Earlsdon:
Answer by rapaljer(4671) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let x= number of quarters
20-x= number of nickels
25(x)+5(20-x)= 260 cents
25x+100-5x=260
20x=160
x=8 Quarters
20-x=12 Nickels

Check:
8 quarters = $2.00
12 nickels = $ .60
Total= $2.60
For additional explanation and examples please see my website by clicking on my tutor name "rapaljer" anywhere in algebra.com. Take the first link on my website which is "Basic and Intermediate Algebra", then look for Chapter 1, and look for three sections on Word Problems.

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Answer by Earlsdon(6294) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let N = the number of nickels and Q = the number of quarters.
Then:
This is the total number of coins.
The value of N nickels is just
and the value of Q quarters is just and the sum of these is $2.60
So now we have two equations:
Rewrite this as: and substitute in the equation below:

Simplify and combine like-terms.

Subtract 1 from both sides.
Divide both sides by 0.2

Jim found 8 quarters.
Check:
Substitute Q = 8 and N = 20-8 = 12.