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Algebra Difficulty 2.3 Junior Find the answer

Nasim buys trading cards in packages of 5 cards and in packages of 8 cards. He can purchase exactly 18 cards by buying two 5-packs and one 8-pack, but he cannot purchase exactly 12 cards with any combination of packages. For how many of the integers n=24,25,26,27,28,29n=24,25,26,27,28,29 can he buy exactly nn cards?

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Nasim can buy 24 cards by buying three 8-packs (3imes8=24)(3 imes 8=24). Nasim can buy 25 cards by buying five 5-packs (5imes5=25)(5 imes 5=25). Nasim can buy 26 cards by buying two 5-packs and two 8-packs (2imes5+2imes8=26)(2 imes 5+2 imes 8=26). Nasim can buy 28 cards by buying four 5-packs and one 8-pack (4imes5+1imes8=28)(4 imes 5+1 imes 8=28). Nasim can buy 29 cards by buying one 5-pack and three 8-packs (1imes5+3imes8=29)(1 imes 5+3 imes 8=29). Nasim cannot buy exactly 27 cards, because the number of cards in 8-packs that he buys would be 0,8,160,8,16, or 24, leaving 27,19,1127,19,11, or 3 cards to buy in 5-packs. None of these are possible, since none of 27,19,1127,19,11, or 3 is a multiple of 5. Therefore, for 5 of the 6 values of nn, Nasim can buy exactly nn cards.

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