SOLUTION: which would i prefer a. a pound of pennies or a 6 inch stack of quarters? b. a 3 inch stack of quarters or a yard of nickels end to end? c. 4 dollars or 4 pounds of pennies.

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Question 563190: which would i prefer
a. a pound of pennies or a 6 inch stack of quarters?
b. a 3 inch stack of quarters or a yard of nickels end to end?
c. 4 dollars or 4 pounds of pennies.
i need to choose one

Found 2 solutions by solver91311, Edwin McCravy:
Answer by solver91311(24713) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!


Depending on the year the penny was made there are roughly 140 to 180 pennies per pound, so you can says that a pound of pennies is worth approximately $1.60. 8 quarters $2.00 so that is all you would need to have to make sure you had more value than a pound of pennies. Quarters are about 0.069 inches thick, so 8 of them would make a stack just slightly greater than a half inch. A six inch stack of quarters is nearly 12 times that.

3 inch stack of quarters is 3 divided by 0.069 quarters. Nickels measure 0.8125 inches across, so a yard of nickels end to end is 36 divided by 0.8125. Do the arithmetic and you decide which you would like to have.

Since a pound of pennies is about $1.60, the answer to the last question should be obvious.

John

My calculator said it, I believe it, that settles it
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Answer by Edwin McCravy(20086) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
For this problem, you will need to go to the US Mint website, which is:

http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/?action=coin_specifications

a. a pound of pennies or a 6 inch stack of quarters?

Find the weight of a penny in grams from that website.

Use the fact that 1 Pound = 453.59237 grams to determine how many
pennies are in 1 pound.

Determine how much money this is

Find the thickness of a quarter in millimeters from the website
Use the fact that 1 inch = 25.4 mm to deterine how many quarters
are in 6 inches. 

Determine how many quarters are in a 6 inch stack.

Determine how much money this is.

Compare the two. 

b. a 3 inch stack of quarters or a yard of nickels end to end?

You will already have found the value of a 6 inch stack of quarters,
so a 3 inch stack will be just half as valuable.

The nickels are not stacked as the quarters are, butplaced end to end, 
so you will need the diameter of a nickel.

Find the diameter of a nickel as the decimal part of an inch from the website

Use the fact that 1 yard = 36 inches to determine how many nickels are in a
yard when placed end to end.  

Determine the value of that many nickels.

Compare those values.

c. 4 dollars or 4 pounds of pennies.

In part a you have already found the value of 1 pound of pennies.
Just multiply it by 4 and see if this is more or less than $4.

Edwin