What is worth more by volume, dimes or quarters?

Get Ogre Here·2/17/2019, 8:11:48 PM·3 votes·1,230 views

If, for example, I have exactly one cubic foot of dimes and exactly one cubic foot of quarters, which would be worth more money?

The math for this seems relatively simple (Just seeing if a dime is more or less than 2.5x smaller than a quarter) but I can't be bothered to find out myself.

Help, this is a very important issue, the fate of the world relies on it!

EDIT: In case anyone comes on this thread and wants the answer without having to scroll, "A quarter has slightly more value per volume on a basis of strictly value-per-volume-of-metal, but I'm not sure about per-cubic-foot, as the shape means that you're actually losing the ability to cram more into a given area. If we had a solid block of quarters or dimes with no air space, quarters would win." - The Djinn has answered our prayers

6 Comments

Tuition Fee2/17/2019, 8:16:15 PM2 votes

I would want to know too, but I have a 51 in math rn ;-;

ModThe Djinn2/17/2019, 8:19:35 PM2 votes

A quarter has slightly more value per volume on a basis of strictly value-per-volume-of-metal, but I'm not sure about per-cubic-foot, as the shape means that you're actually losing the ability to cram more into a given area. If we had a solid block of quarters or dimes with no air space, quarters would win.

Vacus2/17/2019, 8:44:49 PM2 votes

A quarter has a diameter of 24.26 mm and a thickness of 1.75 mm. It's basically a very short cylinder approximately (ignoring the milling and so on), and cylinder volume is pi r squared h, giving us a value of pi * 12.13 * 12.13 * 1.75 = 808.93 cubic mm.

A dime has a diameter of 17.91 mm and a thickness of 1.35 mm. This gives us a volume for a dime of 340.106 cubic mm.

This tells us that a quarter takes up 2.37 times the volume of a dime. Since a quarter is worth 2.5 times as much as a time, this means that a quarter is worth more than a dime, per cubic mm.

(This is a long-winded way of saying with numbers that The Djinn was right, though the values per cubic mm are a lot closer than I would have guessed.)