Mrs Parker has some nickel and some quarters. She tells her son Jason that she has divided the nickels in six equal heaps and the quarters in five equal heaps, but she won't tell the size of each heap. However, she tells Jason that overall she has got 120 coins. Which of the following CANNOT be the total value of all the coins with Mrs Parker?
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Let's say that Mrs. Parker has n nickles and q quarters. From the second sentence we know that 6 ∣ n , 5 ∣ q so we may write n = 6 x , q = 5 y . From the third sentence we know that the linear diophantine equation n + q = 1 2 0 holds so we have 6 x + 5 y = 1 2 0 . This equation implies that 5 y ≡ 0 m o d 6 ⟹ y ≡ 0 m o d 6 ⟹ y = 6 y ′ and 6 x ≡ 0 m o d 5 ⟹ x ≡ 0 m o d 5 ⟹ x = 5 x ′ so in our new variables the equation becomes 3 0 x ′ + 3 0 y ′ = 1 2 0 which then implies x ′ + y ′ = 4 . We also know that both variables have to be positive, leaving only the solutions ( x ′ = 1 , y ′ = 3 ) , ( x ′ = 2 , y ′ = 2 ) , ( x ′ = 3 , y ′ = 1 ) .
The value of the coins Mrs. Parker has must be 0 . 0 5 n + 0 . 2 5 q = 0 . 3 x + 1 . 2 5 y = 1 . 5 x ′ + 7 . 5 y ′ . If we substitute the solutions for x ′ , y ′ we find that all the values listed, except for 1 5 $ are possible.