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Michaela has $2.05 in dimes and nickels in her change purse. She has seven more dimes than nickels. How many coins of each type does she have?

9 nickels, 16 dimes

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Liliana has $2.10 in nickels and quarters in her backpack. She has 12 more nickels than quarters. How many coins of each type does she have?

17 nickels, 5 quarters

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Solve a coin word problem.

  1. Read the problem. Make sure you understand all the words and ideas, and create a table to organize the information.
  2. Identify what you are looking for.
  3. Name what you are looking for. Choose a variable to represent that quantity.
    • Use variable expressions to represent the number of each type of coin and write them in the table.
    • Multiply the number times the value to get the total value of each type of coin.
  4. Translate into an equation. Write the equation by adding the total values of all the types of coins.
  5. Solve the equation using good algebra techniques.
  6. Check the answer in the problem and make sure it makes sense.
  7. Answer the question with a complete sentence.

You may find it helpful to put all the numbers into the table to make sure they check.

Type Number Value ($) Total Value

Maria has $2.43 in quarters and pennies in her wallet. She has twice as many pennies as quarters. How many coins of each type does she have?

Solution

Step 1. Read the problem.

  • Determine the types of coins involved.
    We know that Maria has quarters and pennies.
  • Create a table to organize the information.
    • Label the columns type, number, value, total value.
    • List the types of coins.
    • Write in the value of each type of coin.
    • Write in the total value of all the coins.
Type Number Value ($) Total Value ($)
Quarters 0.25
Pennies 0.01
2.43

Step 2. Identify what you are looking for.

We are looking for the number of quarters and pennies.

Step 3. Name: Represent the number of quarters and pennies using variables.

We know Maria has twice as many pennies as quarters. The number of pennies is defined in terms of quarters.

Let q represent the number of quarters.

Then the number of pennies is 2 q .

Type Number Value ($) Total Value ($)
Quarters q 0.25
Pennies 2 q 0.01
2.43

Multiply the ‘number’ and the ‘value’ to get the ‘total value’ of each type of coin.

Type Number Value ($) Total Value ($)
Quarters q 0.25 0.25 q
Pennies 2 q 0.01 0.01 ( 2 q )
2.43

Step 4. Translate. Write the equation by adding the 'total value’ of all the types of coins.

Step 5. Solve the equation.

Write the equation. .
Multiply. .
Combine like terms. .
Divide by 0.27. .
The number of pennies is 2 q . .
.
.

Step 6. Check the answer in the problem.

Maria has 9 quarters and 18 pennies. Does this make $2.43 ?

9 quarters 9 ( 0.25 ) = 2.25 18 pennies 18 ( 0.01 ) = 0.18 _____ Total $2.43

Step 7. Answer the question. Maria has nine quarters and eighteen pennies.

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Sumanta has $4.20 in nickels and dimes in her desk drawer. She has twice as many nickels as dimes. How many coins of each type does she have?

42 nickels, 21 dimes

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Alison has three times as many dimes as quarters in her purse. She has $9.35 altogether. How many coins of each type does she have?

51 dimes, 17 quarters

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In the next example, we'll show only the completed table—make sure you understand how to fill it in step by step.

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Source:  OpenStax, Prealgebra. OpenStax CNX. Jul 15, 2016 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11756/1.9
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