AMC 10 Daily Practice Round 1

Complete problem set with solutions and individual problem pages

Problem 19 Medium

You have four bills each of denominations 1 dollar, 2 dollars, and 5 dollars. How many different ways can you use these bills to make a total of 23 dollars?

  • A.

    2

  • B.

    5

  • C.

    3

  • D.

    6

  • E.

    4

Answer:B

To pay 23 dollars, we can use up to 4 bills of 5 dollars each. Since using all 1-dollar and 2-dollar bills totals 12 dollars, at least 3 bills of 5 dollars must be used. When using 3 bills of 5 dollars, the total value of the 5-dollar bills is 5 \times 3 = 15 dollars, leaving 23 - 15 = 8 dollars to be made up with 1-dollar and 2-dollar bills. We can use the 2-dollar bills as follows: 23 = 15 + (2+2+2+2), \quad 23 = 15 + (2+2+2+1+1), \quad 23 = 15 + (2+2+1+1+1+1), giving us 3 different payment methods. When using 4 bills of 5 dollars, the total value is 5 \times 4 = 20 dollars, leaving 23 - 20 = 3 dollars. We can pay this using: 23 = 20 + (2+1), \quad 23 = 20 + (1+1+1), giving us 2 more payment methods. Therefore, the total number of distinct payment methods is 3 + 2 = 5.