Two women and two men entered a cafeteria and each pulled a ticket (There's a illustration, but I can't post it here... It's a rectangle with numbers from 5-100 that go by 5 cents, 10 cents, 15 cents...etc)
Anyway...

1. The four ordered the same food and had he same numeral punched out on their ticket (the retangle is the ticket).

2. Each of the four had exactly four coins.

3. The two women had the same amount of money in coins, though no denomination (value) of coin was held by both women; the two men had the same amount of money in coins, though no denominationof coin was held by both men.

4. Each of the four paid the exact amount inndicated by the numberal that was punched out on his or her ticket.

Which numeral was punched out on each ticket? NOTE: "Coins" may be pennies (1 cent), nickles (5 cents), dimes (10 cents), quarters (25 cents), half dollar (50 cents) or silver dollar.

(In reply to re: Popping Balloons (see note at end) by np_rt)

You are quite right. I should have considered the silver dollar. (I did not because the price was ≤ 1 Dollar, and the silver dollar would limit the possibilities for the other coins.) You are also correct in that 125 is a shared value (1 nickel, 2 dimes & 1 silver dollar/3 quarters & 1 half-dollar). That gives us three possible starting amounts 40 cents, 80 cents, and 125. (There may be another one or two if we explore the permutations with a silver dollar). But the pric can't be 25 cents, because then in the second couple, the one with three dime (and either a half-dollar or a fourth dime) cannot make exact change. I suspect that if there are other shared values involving a silver dollar, they will also wind up being disqualified.

Posted by TomM on 2002-12-27 22:55:22