Oliver has an equal positive number of quarters, dimes, and pickles in his bag. the total amount in the bag is a whole number of dollars. what is the smallest amount of money stan could have?

side note:
explain as i want to fully understand the answer.

answer:

$3

step-by-step explanation:

dimes = 10c

quarters = 25c

nickels = 5c

find the lcm least common multiple by listing them until they have a common one.

dimes -->       10, 20, 30, 40, 50

quarters -->   25, 50, 75, 100

nickels -->     5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50

50 is the lowest common multiple. there needs to be a 50c worth of each type of coin.

the term number in the lcm list is the amount of each coin we have:

5 dimes, 2 quarters, 10 nickels.

multiply the amount of each coin by the coin type and add them together to find the total value:

5*10 + 2*25 + 10*5

= 50 + 50 + 50

= 150

150c = $1.50

that is not a whole number.

multiply the value 2 and it will be a whole number.

instead, we now have 10 dimes, 4 quarters and 20 nickels. $1 of each coin type.

either stan or oliver has 300c, or $3.