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Money Bags

Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star
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Ram divided $15$ pennies among four small bags.

bags

He labelled each bag with the number of pennies inside it.

He could then pay any sum of money from $1$p to $15$p without opening any bag.

How many pennies did Ram put in each bag?

This problem is based on Money Bags from 'Mathematical Challenges for Able Pupils Key Stages 1 and 2', published by DfES. You can download a copy here.


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The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice.

NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.

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