07 Jan DQ1 Use the digits of your

Week 1 discussion

DQ1 In Chapter 1 of the text (1-13) you will look at calculating a monthly payment for a loan. A simpler problem is to compute the amount a loan would cost you in one month.

Using information from an internet source, determine the current interest rate a credit card or loan. Suppose you borrow $1000 (or spend $1000) on a credit card. How much will you owe in one month? 6 months if you pay nothing for 6 months?

Compute the 6 month cost in two ways:

Make 6 monthly computations. Enter these as formulas in a spreadsheet. (The goal here is really getting you to use spreadsheets and formulas for computations.)

Use the formula, A= 1000(1 + r)N where N = the number of periods (6) and r = the periodic interest rate = APR/12, where APR is the annual percentage rate

DQ2 Roll two dice and add the numbers. Roll the dice 40 times and record your results. Find the eight descriptive statistics in the Chapter 1 for this data set.

Week 2 discussion

DQ1 Go to https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html, choose a country, and find the following rates: Birth, Death, and Net Immigration for the most current year. Use the rates and the current population to find the number of each category expected for that year – use ratio tables and be sure to attach them to your answer.

DQ2 Suppose you have a class where you have four quizzes each worth 15% of the grade and two exams each worth 20%. If you make 77% on two quizzes, 100% on one, and 86% on the fourth along with 98% on one exam and 66% on the other. What is the weighted average?

Week 3 discussion

DQ1 Choose one country that you might like to visit. Select a duration for your trip between two and six weeks, and then choose a number of participants between 5 and 10 people. Suppose one goal of your group is to speak to every adult citizen in the country. How many citizens must each missionary need to talk to per day, per hour, and per second to speak to every adult citizen in that country? Is that goal reasonable?

DQ2 According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the mean height of an American male is 69.3 inches and the mean height of an American female is 63.8 inches. The standard deviation for both genders is 2.7 inches.

According to Chebyshev’s Theorem 75% of the data for your gender lies between what two heights?

If height is assumed to be normal, what percentage of the data lies between those same two heights?

Look in the Guided Worksheets on page 49 for more information.

Week 4 discussion

DQ1 What is percent? Write your height in inches. Suppose it increases by 15%, what would your new height be? Now suppose your height decreases by 15% what is your new height?

DQ2 Many students take online courses because they are more convenient for their schedules. What are some of the tradeoffs for taking an online course in a subject such as math? What tools are you using to overcome these challenges?

Week 5 discussion

DQ1 Select one of the options below and create a linear equation to represent the monthly bill. When will the plans cost the same? Explain when each plan is a better option.

Option 1: Plan A $39.99 for 200 min and $1.25 for each min after. Plan B $29.99 for 200 min and $1.50 for each min after.

Option 2: Plan A $25.75 plus $.75 per min. Plan B $20.99 plus $1.00 per min

Option 3: Plan A $39.99 plus $1.25 per min. Plan B $25.99 plus $1.75 per min

Option 4: Plan A $45.99 for 400 min and $.50 for each min after. Plan B $49.99 for 400 min and $.40 for each min after

DQ2 In Chapter 1 of the text we looked at calculating a monthly payment for a loan. A related formula is to calculate the amount accruing when regular payments are made into an interest bearing account – often called the Savings Plan formula.

(A is the accrued amount after t years of making regular payments, PMT, into an account at interest rate, r%, compounded n times each year.)

A(t) = PMT·((1 + r/N)N·t – 1)/(r/N)

= PMT*((1 + r/N)^(N*t) – 1)/(r/N)

The second version is essentially in the form used in Excel

Suppose you want to buy a car and have decided that you can save $100 a month. Using information from an internet source, determine the current interest rate on savings accounts and use the information to answer the following:

How much money will you have saved in a year’s time?

How much will be interest?

Why wouldn’t a linear model work here?

Week 6 discussion

DQ1 Use the digits of your birthday as the amount of your initial investment (i.e., 6/25 is $625), calculate the value of this investment after 10 years at 3.5% APR for interest compounded yearly, quarterly, monthly, and daily. What do you notice?

DQ2 Using the average inflation rates from: http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/historical-inflation-rates/ use the geometric mean to find the average percent change

in inflation for the past 5 years.

Week 7 discussion

DQ1 What are the four major categories of securities? How are they evaluated?

DQ2 What are your favorite and least favorite experiences in this class so far? When responding, please refrain from using names and sharing comments that are inappropriate for the discussion forum.