Day 27: Heart of Mathematics

• Announcements:
  • Homework section 6.3 returned: 13, 24.

    Here's the Sierpinski Target Practice game on-line....

  • Financial Math Homework: pp. 678-681, #1, 3, 4, 9, 10, 12; Type up #20. Change: Formerly due Wednesday, 4/29; extended: hand it in with the final.

  • Next time: "show-n-tell"! (Wednesday, 4/29)
    • Please be on time, so that we can get started right away.
    • You'll each have only a few minutes. If you have anything electronic that you need displayed, please get it to me in advance, so that I can have it ready.
    • I'll choose our order randomly.
    • You'll be asked to give your top three picks for nice presentations (you can't pick your own!;), and why. That way I'll have your input for that piece of the grade.

  • You can start doing the "final homework" -- the attitude survey -- on-line, on Blackboard.

  • It's time for course evaluations: those are to be done on-line. Please visit the site http://eval.nku.edu/ to do so.

    You can carry this out until Friday of this week (May 1). Please participate!

• Financial Math (Section 8.3: Money Matters)
  • 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%).

  • So: when (and why?) do we invest in the stock market?
    • Historical Dow Jones industrial average: 6.06% (since 1928)
    • Long Term Average Dow Close Values
    • Average of Following Thousand Dow Close Values

  • What's the effect of inflation?
    • Historical Mean Inflation rate: 1.61%
    • Since 1950: 3.86%

• Wrapping up

Links:

• 13 Financial Tips for College Students