Question 34
Context: Estu asks, "What if we use 5-rupee coins or 10-rupee notes instead? How much money could it be?".
Q. Make an instinctive guess first. Then find out (make necessary and reasonable assumptions about the unknown details and find the answers).
We calculate total items from an exponential series. Then we find the total money.
The problem is from the "Exponents" chapter. So, the total number of items will be large. Let us assume about 1000 items (like ). With 5-rupee coins, it would be about 5000 rupees. With 10-rupee notes, it would be about 10000 rupees. This is our instinctive guess.
Step 1 — Determine total number of items
We assume the original problem involved a sum of powers of 2. Let us sum the number of items from to . This is a geometric series. The first term is . The common ratio is . The number of terms is (from to ). The sum of a geometric series is .

Step 2 — Calculate money with 5-rupee coins
We multiply total items by the 5-rupee coin value. Let be the total money with 5-rupee coins.
Step 3 — Calculate money with 10-rupee notes
We multiply total items by the 10-rupee note value. Let be the total money with 10-rupee notes.
Answer
(i) Instinctive Guess: Around 5000 Rupees with 5-rupee coins, and around 10000 Rupees with 10-rupee notes. (ii) With 5-rupee coins: 5115 Rupees (iii) With 10-rupee notes: 10230 Rupees
More questions in IT
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(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
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Is ? Verify.
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(i) (ii) (iii)
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(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
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(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
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(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
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Context: Roxie wonders, "Instead of jaggery if we use 1-rupee coins, how many coins are needed to equal my weight?".
Q. Would the number of coins be in hundreds, thousands, lakhs, crores, or even more? Make an instinctive guess.
Context: Roxie wonders, "Instead of jaggery if we use 1-rupee coins, how many coins are needed to equal my weight?".
Q. Find the answer by making necessary and reasonable assumptions and approximations for the unknowns. Remember, we are not looking for an exact answer but a reasonably close estimate.
How about measuring to find out the weight of a 1-rupee coin?
Context: Estu asks, "What if we use 5-rupee coins or 10-rupee notes instead? How much money could it be?".
Q. Make an instinctive guess first. Then find out (make necessary and reasonable assumptions about the unknown details and find the answers).
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Context: Roxie and Estu overheard someone saying—"We did padayātra for about 400 km to reach this place! We arrived early this morning."
Q. How long ago would they have started their journey?
Context: Roxie and Estu overheard someone saying—"We did padayātra for about 400 km to reach this place! We arrived early this morning."
Q. Find answers by making necessary assumptions and approximations. Do guess first before calculating to check how close your guess was!
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Context: Roxie tells Estu about a science-fiction novel she is reading where they build a ladder to reach the moon, "... I wonder if we actually had a ladder like that, how many steps would it have?".
Q. What do you think? Make an instinctive guess first.
Context: Roxie tells Estu about a science-fiction novel she is reading where they build a ladder to reach the moon, "... I wonder if we actually had a ladder like that, how many steps would it have?".
Q. Would the number of steps be in thousands, lakhs, crores, or even more?
Can you come up with some examples of linear growth and of exponential growth?
With a global human population of about and about African elephants, can we say that there are nearly 20,000 people for every African elephant?
Calculate and write the answer using scientific notation:
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A different way to say your age!
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Write them in scientific notation.
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