You are given a bottle with American coins: pennies, nickels, dimes, and possibly quarters. You are NOT allowed to open the bottle. And you do not know HOW MANY coins are in the bottle. How can you find the exact amount of money that the bottle holds?
--You can weigh the bottle and any spare coins you have laying around to find the weight of an individual coin. You can count coins on the outside. Anything else within the "rules" is acceptable.
2007-02-01 01:12:24 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
I'd count the number of each type of coin that I could see around the outer edge ot the bottle of coins and set a good ratio for each type of coin. Then, I'd use that ratio against the volume of the bottle. That should give me a pretty good estimate of how much money is in the jar.
2007-02-01 01:27:46 · answer #1 · answered by krodgibami 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The US mint site give the metal weights of the coins.
http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/index.cfm?action=coin_specifications
From this you can work out the weight of a penny, the weight for each cent of a nickel and the weight for quarters and dimes which are the same in weight per cent ratio. This set of three values for grams per penny(value) let you deal with the problem by factoring out the values just like when solving for how many chickens and cats are in a group of animals and all you are given is a leg count.
As you quickly note, a penny is 2.5 grams, nickels are 1 gram for each penny value and dimes and quarters are both 0.2268 grams for each penny value. now you have a three value factoring problem if you know the weight. As somebody mentioned you also need to correct for the weight of the bottle.
2007-02-01 01:27:35 · answer #2 · answered by U-98 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the whole weighing the bottle and spare coins wont really help you because there is no way of knowing how many nickles, dimes, pennies there are. all you can see is the outside layer. after that you just have to guess. i would say you can get a jar and fill it up your self with random amount of pennies, nickles, dimes and base your guess from there.
2007-02-01 01:22:10 · answer #3 · answered by Mustng0021 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The college students I supervise are collecting beer cans from all the seniors after they're weekend partying and they have raised almost $200 in a couple of months. Not bad! They're planning on having a BBQ in a few weeks.
2016-05-24 01:35:55 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think there is any way. As far as I can tell you have one equation which is the mass of each quantity of each type of coin plus the mass of the bottle (each of which are unknown) equals the total mass (which is known).
One equation, five unknowns.
2007-02-01 01:23:46 · answer #5 · answered by gebobs 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ask the person who filled the bottle or just break the bottle
2007-02-01 01:21:02 · answer #6 · answered by exidement99 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
hexes
i like ur name
if im gettin it i dont care how much does it carry
2007-02-01 01:19:37 · answer #7 · answered by Random Dude 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ask someone else to do it for you!!!
2007-02-01 01:15:38 · answer #8 · answered by Loren H 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
$32.48
2007-02-01 01:15:51 · answer #9 · answered by whitney B 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
32.48
2007-02-01 01:18:50 · answer #10 · answered by k.sravan 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋