Sunday Afternoon Maths XXIV
Exact change
In the UK, the coins less than £1 are 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p. How many coins would I need to carry in my pocket so that I could make any value from 1p to 99p?
In the US, the coins less than $1 are 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, 25¢. How many coins would I need to carry in my pocket so that I could make any value from 1¢ to 99¢?
Show answer & extension
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In the UK, eight coins are needed: 1p, 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 20p, 50p.
In the US, ten coins are needed: 1¢, 1¢, 1¢, 1¢, 5¢, 10¢, 10¢, 25¢, 25¢, 25¢.
Extension
In a far away country, the unit of currency is the #, which is split into 100@ (# is like £ or $; @ is like p or ¢).
Let C be the number of coins less than #1. Let P be the number of coins needed to make any value between 1@ and 99@. Which coins should be the country mint to minimise the value of P+C?
Square cross
A figure in the shape of a cross is made from five 1 x 1 squares, as shown. The cross is inscribed in a large square whose sides are parallel to the dashed square, formed by four vertices of the cross.
What is the area of the large outer square?
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The smaller diagonal square is made up of a 1×1 square and four 1×2 right-angled triangles. Therefore its area is 5.
The line FM, and therefore the line DN, has gradient 2. The line JM, and therefore the line ON, has gradient -½. ON passes through (1,2) and DN passes through (2,0). Therefore, DN has equation \(y=2x-4\) and ON has equation \(y=\frac{5}{2}-\frac{1}{2}x\). These lines intersect at \((\frac{13}{5},\frac{6}{5})\), these are the co-ordinates of N. By the same method, the co-ordinates of P are \((-\frac{8}{5},-\frac{1}{5})\).
By Pythagoras' Theorem, The diagonal of the larger square is \(\frac{7\sqrt{10}}{5}\) and so the area of the larger square is 9.8.
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