Math Problem (Algebra 1)

Question

Alex dumped out his piggy bank and there were only nickels, dimes, and quarters. The number of dimes was one more than a third of the number of nickels. The number of quarters was one less than the number of nickels and dimes. Find out how many of each coin there are.

Answer 1

d = 1 + n/3

q = -1 + d+n

3rd restriction is n, d, q are integer values,

each = 2 or more

nickels dimes quarters

3 2 4

6 3 8

9 4 12

12 5 16

etc.

with some upper limit give practical sizes of piggy banks, maybe 100 total coins max

n d q

21 8 28

30 11 40

33 12 44 sum = 89

36 13 48 sum =97

39 14 52 sum = 105

go with 36 nickels, 13 dimes 48 quarters

total value = 36/20 + 1.3 + 14 = 5.7 + 7.1 = $12.80