Question

These are the first sentences in the short story, "The Gift of the Magi," by O. Henry:

"One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies." Let q be the number of quarters, d be the number of dimes, and n be the number of nickels.

a) 25q + 10d + 5n + 60 = 187
b) q + d + n + 60 = 187
c) 25q + 10d + 5n + 60 = 1.87
d) 0.25q + 0.10d + 0.5n + 0.60 = 187

Answer 1

I think the answer to this is: 25q + 10d + 5n + 60 = 87

The story says that you have 1 dollar and 87 cents; 60 cents of which is pennies. So, if you’re using an equation involving quarters, dimes and nickels, the total equation should equal to 87 cents (since that dollar bill could not be broken down to cents). 

Answer 2

The correct answer is:

a) 25q + 10d + 5n + 60 = 187

Explanation:

One dollar and 87 cents can be written as 1.87.  However, since one dollar is equal to 100 cents, we can also write this as 187 cents.

Each quarter, represented by q, is equal to 25 cents; this gives us the expression 25q.

Each dime, represented by d, is equal to 10 cents; this gives us the expression 10d.

Each nickel, represented by n, is equal to 5 cents; this gives us the expression 5n.

We have 60 pennies.

This gives us the equation 25q+10d+5n+60=187.