1.6.4

Compound Interest

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Compound Growth and Decay

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Growth and decay

  • When an amount increases or decreases by a set percentage on a regular basis this is called compound growth or compound decay.
  • The amount that is lost/gained changes with each interval since the amount lost/gained is a percentage of the current amount.
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Formula

  • This formula gives the amount after n intervals:
    • N = S × (multiplier)n
  • Where S is the starting amount and the multiplier is the percentage multiplier:
    • 1.25 for a 25% increase or 0.6 for a 40% decrease.

Compound Interest

In summer, the number of ants in a colony increases by 20% each day. On the first day there are 10,000 ants. How many are there after 3 days?

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Key terms

  • Compound interest is when the amount of interest for a bank account is calculated again each interval rather than just using the starting amount.
  • Depreciation is when the value of an item decreases each year as it ages.
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And again for the 3rd day

  • We can also solve these problems using the formula:
    • N = S × (multiplier)n

Compound Interest

In summer, the number of ants in a colony increases by 20% each day. On the first day there are 10,000 ants. How many days until the colony numbers more than 30,000?

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The formula for compound interest

  • N is the number of ants
  • n is the number of days passed
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Answer

  • This is the first day we are over 30 000 so the answer is 7 days.

Jump to other topics

1Numbers

2Equations, Formulae & Identities

3Sequences, Functions & Graphs

4Geometry

5Vectors & Transformation Geometry

6Statistics & Probability

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