Many Coins

A numismatist decides to divide his coin collection between his children. The oldest gets 1/2 of the collection, the next gets 1/4, the next gets 1/5, and the youngest gets the remaining 49 coins. How many coins are in the collection?

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May 22nd, 2012 | Category: Brain Riddle, Mathematical |  Email This Riddle

2 guesses to Many Coins

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• anant

  May 22, 2012 at 11:03 PM

  980 coins

• Dude

  May 22, 2012 at 11:12 PM

  Correct, Anant.

  There are 980 coins in the collection.

  To check this we add:

  1÷2 + 1÷4 + 1÷5 + 49

  this works out as

  490 + 245 + 196 + 49 = 980, as required.

  To work the answer out from the question, we observe that:

  1÷2 + 1÷4 + 1÷5 = 19÷20

  and we know that there were 49 coins left, so 1÷20 of the collection is 49 coins.

  Which means that the entire collection is 20 x 49 = 980 coins.

  You’re today’s winner.