In the Money

'In the Money' printed from https://nrich.maths.org/

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There are a number of coins on a table.

One quarter of the coins show heads.

If I turn over two coins, then one third show heads.

How many coins are there altogether?

Once you have thought about how you would begin to solve this problem, click below to see how other children began to work on it:

Freddie said:

I got some coins to try out ways to make it work.

Vasanthi and Francis said:

We noticed that there were more heads after turning over two coins.

Hussam and Suzy said:

First we thought of what number could have a quarter and a third which are whole numbers.

Did you start the problem in the same way as any of these children?
What do you think about each method?

Now continue to work towards a solution to the problem. You could choose to use Freddie's, or Vasanthi and Francis', or Hussam and Suzy's method.