Question

Adam has 3 coins in his pocket and they are all different from each other. Ben has 3 coins in his pocket and they are all the same as each other. Adam has half as much money as Ben.
What are the coins they each have?

Answer 1

Answer:

The possible coins are:

P = penny = $0.01

N = nickel = $0.05

D = dime = $0.10

Q = quarter = $0.25

H = half dollar = $0.50

We know that Adam has 3 coins in his pocket, and all of them are different, then the money that Adam has can be represented with (A + B + C)

Behn has 3 coins, and all of them are the same, then if his coin has a value X, he has a total of 3*X

We know that Adam has half as much money as Ben, this can be written as:

(A + B + C) = 3*X/2

The easier way to solve this, is to play with different values of X, and see if we can find the values of A, B and C.

For example, if X = $0.10

then:

(A + B + C) = $0.10*(3/2) = $0.15

We can find 3 different value of coins for this equation? No, we cant, so X = $0.10 is also discarded.

if x = $0.50 then:

(A + B + C) = (3/2)*$0.50 = $0.75

Here we could have:

A = $0.50

B = $0.25

then: A + B = $0.75

But we still have the coin C.

If we take X = $0.25 then:

(A + B + C) = (3/2)*$0.25 = $0.375

We could round the right part to $0.40

then the coins in the left part would be:

A = $0.25

B = $0.10

C = $0.05

A + B + C =  $0.25 + $0.10 +  $0.05 = $0.40

This is a strech, but is the only thing we can make with the given problem.