PRIZE PUZZLE FOR DECEMBER 2003
Whether or not there is a Hot Key magazine, this is the puzzle
for December.
The Ways of Coins
In this problem, you can use coins of value 200, 100, 50, 20, 10,
5, 2 and 1 pence to make up a value of money. The number of ways
you can represent a given value must be worked out. Here are
some (trivial) examples. The value of 1p can only be represented
in one way, namely as a single penny. The value of 2p can be
represented in two ways. They are, firstly as 2 pennies and
secondly as the single coin of value 2p. Three pence can also be
represented in two ways: 3 single pence and 1 2p + 1 1p coin.
Work out for yourself the number of ways that the value 4p can be
represented. You should get the answer 3. As you might expect,
the number of ways increases rapidly as the value of the money
increases.
The problem this month is to find the smallest value of money
that can be represented in more ways than the value of the money
in pence.
You can e-mail your answer through this link (without me
having to reveal my e-mail address to spam robots):
The closing date is January 7th 2004. |