Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Motions and Functions



a) No, all the vehicles did not depart from the same place.

b) No, they were not all at the same speed.

c) No, for each individual one, the speed was constant.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Real-life Percentages

1) My mom bought a computer. The original price was USD 600 and the tax was 20% and not included.
She wanted to calculate the tax. What is 20% of USD 600?
I did:
20%*600 = USD 120
So; the tax was USD 120.
And for the total cost:
600+120 = 720
So the total cost is USD 720.

2) I saw a pair of jeans in a store and they originally cost USD 80 but they were on sale for 70% off.
What is the rebate? What is 70% of USD 80?
I did:
70%*80 = USD 56
So; the rebate is USD 56.
So the price of the pair of jeans is going to be USD 24.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Family Compound Interest Activity

Imagine investing 200$ at 4% interest. After 25 years, would you make more money using simple or compound interest?

Simple Interest:

A=P+P*r*n
A= 200+200*0.04*25
A=400

Compound Interest:

A=P(1+r)^9
A=200(1+0.04)^25
A=533.2

Thus, we can see that we make a lot more money using compound interest than simple interest.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Personal Consumer Price Index

There is not a big difference in the price from the 1st year and the price in the 2nd year. It increased by 1.1%, which is not that much.
But when you think of it, a student probably wouldn't buy 6 ice creams a week, maybe 1, he wouldn't buy an iPad, or even a bike every week either so the percentage increase increases.