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 can he buy exactly cards?
Solution
Nasim can buy 24 cards by buying three 8-packs . Nasim can buy 25 cards by buying five 5-packs . Nasim can buy 26 cards by buying two 5-packs and two 8-packs . Nasim can buy 28 cards by buying four 5-packs and one 8-pack . Nasim can buy 29 cards by buying one 5-pack and three 8-packs . Nasim cannot buy exactly 27 cards, because the number of cards in 8-packs that he buys would be , or 24, leaving , or 3 cards to buy in 5-packs. None of these are possible, since none of , or 3 is a multiple of 5. Therefore, for 5 of the 6 values of , Nasim can buy exactly cards.
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