Ricardo Gutierrez has a box of coins that he uses when playing poker with friends. The box currently contains 46 coins, consisit
ing of pennies, dimes, and quarters. The number of pennies is equal to the number of dimes, and the total value is $4.87. How many of each denomination of coin does he have?
Let x be the number of pennies which is also equal to the number of dimes. By this representation, the number of quarters is equal 46 - 2x. The total amount is $4.87 or 487 cents. The equation that best represent the given is, x + 10x + 25(46 - 2x) = 487 The value of x from the equation is 17. Therefore, there are 17 of both pennies and dimes and 12 quarters.