Day 38: Heart of Mathematics

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Announcements:
- Fractal/Tree homework still not graded -- sorry!
- Your show-n-tell item will require two aspects:
  - A "presentation" (how will you explain your "item" to your peers -- imagine that you have five minutes)
  - A two-page, typed, well-written, self-edited, peer-edited, perfect paper, explaining your item.
- Today we randomly choose our presentation dates.
- I heard a story on Le Corbusier on "The World" on Monday, Nov 24, 2008. Very interesting! No mention of golden rectangles, unfortunately....
  This would make a good show-n-tell item (except that you can't use it, now that I found it). This is the sort of thing I have in mind.
Financial Math (Section 8.3: Money Matters)
- Homework: pp. 678-681, #1, 3, 4, 9, 10, 12; Type up #20. Due Monday, 12/8 (note change in due date).
- How do the credit card companies make so much money? (compounding interest!)
  - Pretty straight forward: #6, p. 678
  - Here's a twist: #11, p. 679
- How do mortgages work?
  - Other loans can be calculated the same way: for example, CitiFinancial's loan shark fishing attempt on me.
  - Here's another straight-forward mortgage problem: #16, p. 680
- A "real-world" example: do you use those balance-transfer checks? I got this offer awhile back.
  - What are the hidden costs (buried in the fine print)?
  - What would $1000 cost me for a year, if I take it out May 1, and pay nothing back? (By the way, the balance transfer APR is 18.99%).
- Inflation: how to convert dollars to a common standard.
  - Inflation calculator
  - Historical Consumer Price Index table (from 1913)

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