The number of twenty-cent coins in a box was 1/3 the number of fifty-cent coins. 8 fifty-cent coins were taken out and exchanged for twenty-cent coins which were put back into the box. The number of fifty-cent coins became 4/7 the number of twenty-cent coins. How much money was there in the box?

Answer 1

Let's start by using variables to represent the unknown quantities in the problem. Let:

- x be the number of fifty-cent coins in the box
- y be the number of twenty-cent coins in the box

From the first sentence of the problem, we know that:

y = (1/3)x

We can use this equation to substitute y in terms of x in the rest of the problem.

Next, we're told that 8 fifty-cent coins were exchanged for twenty-cent coins. This means that:

- 8 fifty-cent coins were taken out of the box
- 8 twenty-cent coins were put into the box

After this exchange, the number of fifty-cent coins became 4/7 the number of twenty-cent coins. This means that:

x - 8 = (4/7)(y + 8)

We can substitute y in terms of x from the first equation to get:

x - 8 = (4/7)((1/3)x + 8)

Simplifying this equation, we get:

x - 8 = (4/21)x + (32/7)

Multiplying both sides by 21 to eliminate fractions, we get:

21x - 168 = 4x + 96

Solving for x, we get:

x = 18

Now we can use this value of x to find y:

y = (1/3)x = 6

This means there were originally 18 fifty-cent coins and 6 twenty-cent coins in the box, for a total of $9.60:

18 x $0.50 = $9.00
6 x $0.20 = $1.20

Therefore, the answer is $9.60.

Answer 2

original:
number of 20 cent coins --- x
number of 50 cent coins ---- 3x

after removal:
number of 50 cent coins = 3x-8
8 of the 50 cent coins = 20 of the 20 cents coins, so
number of 20 cent coins = x + 20

number of 50 cent coins = (4/7) of the 20 cent coins
3x - 8 = (4/7)(x + 20)
21x - 56 = 4x + 80
17x = 136
x = 8

So originally we had 20 cent coins = 160 cents
and 24 of the 50 cent coins = 1200 cents

so total was 1360 cents

We are not told what the denomination is other than cents, nothing was
mentioned in terms of $'s

Answer 3

Oops, my apologies. I made an incorrect assumption that the denomination was in dollars.

Based on your working, it seems that the denomination is indeed in cents. So the final answer would be 1360 cents, as you've correctly calculated.

Thank you for catching my mistake!