Question 464101: I have 18 pesos money. How many stamps of 1.4 pesos each can I buy? how much is my change?
Found 2 solutions by Theo, richard1234:
Answer by Theo(13342)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! you have 18 pesos.
18 / 1.4 = 12.85714286 stamps.
since you can't buy a part of a stamp, then you can buy 12 stamps.
12 stamps costs you 1.4 * 12 = 16.8 pesos.
you should get 1.2 pesos back as change, but, since there is no currency that is worth .2 of a peso, then you lose that fraction and you get back 1 peso.
you paid 17 pesos and you got 12 stamps worth 16.8 pesos.
if you wanted to make sure you got a full peso back as change without losing parts of a peso, then you would look at this problem differently.
The least common multiple of 1.4 is 5. that's because 1.4 * 5 = 7 pesos which is an integer.
there is no number of stamps smaller than 5 that will cost you an integral number of pesos.
if you buy stamps in multiples of 5, you will be assured to get a full peso back as change.
10 stamps will cost you 14 pesos.
your change will be 3 pesos.
this is the most you can buy with 18 pesos without losing a fraction of a peso back as change.
so, you can buy 10 pesos and get an integral amount of pesos back as change, or you can buy 12 pesos and get back change that includes a fractional part that you will lose because the currency doesn't handle denominations that small.
if the monetary system works on a rounding system, then if your change is .5 or higher fractional part of a peso then you would get an additional peso back as change, and if your change is less than .5 fractional part of a peso then you would not get that additional part of a peso back as change.
other ways of handling this would be to set up an account and record all the partial peso transactions and then tally up all the fractional parts so that you would get an integral number of pesos back periodically, minimizing the impact of partial pesos as change.
that's all too complicated for what should be a simple algebra problem.
without even thinking about partial pesos, etc., the answer to your question could be:
18 pesos divided by 1.4 = 12.85714286 stamps.
since you can't buy parts of a stamp, then you can buy 12 stamps and they will cost you 16.8 pesos.
you will get 1.2 pesos back as change.
i have no idea what was in your instructor's mind when they handed you the problem this way.
hopefully my answers will cover all possible contingencies and you can pick and choose the correct answer given your situation.
Answer by richard1234(7193)  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! 18/1.4 = 12.85... but we round down to 12 because you cannot buy part of a stamp. So the maximum number of stamps you can buy is 12. If you buy 12 stamps you will spend 16.8 pesos, and the amount of change is 18 - 16.8 = 1.2 pesos.
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