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Hey Everyone :) I'm Kate and a level 2 mod on here. I've had this account since July 2004, so I've been on here since I was 13! Wow ... crazy for me to think how long ago that was. I will admit I don't check in as often as I once did, but being away at college, being in a sorority, and having a job when I'm not at school is very time consuming. I still try to help out as much as possible, and if you send me a question I WILL answer it. This site helped me a LOT when I was in high school and had a lot of questions, and I'm here to help anyone who needs it :) Feel free to write in my forum or send me a question any time!

advice

I am not in school. I have graduated college etc. I was really good in math until I got to Geometry...I was doing fine and then we lost our teacher and my grade went from a b to like a c- and then in Algebra 1, my teacher didn't have time to work with me, then in algebra 2 i lost another teacher and my grade went down drasticly again. I really feel like I could have been good at it if I had the right teacher. I wanted to prove this to myself, so I told someone that works at a school and they gave me an algebra 1 book and I decided to teach my self from the begining. I have decided that if I get at least 1 full grade higher than I did in school, that I am very capable of being good at math. So far I have done 20 questions and have only gotten 1 wrong...that is what my question is about today. This is the questioin:

SUPOSE YOU DEPOSITE $120 IN A SAVING ACCOUNT THAT PAYS AN ANNYAL INTEREST RATE OF 4%. USING THE INTEREST FORMULA I=Prt, HOW MUCH INTEREST WOULD YOU EARN IN 6 MONTHS?

This is the problem...i know how to get the answer to this equation. the answer is $2.40. The thing is the equation that i used to get it is not the one that i am supposed to use. this is what i did...i took $120 and multiplied it by .04 and got $4.80. That would be the interest for the whole year. Then i divided that by 2 (which would equate to 1/2 of a year) and got $2.40.

The problem is that this book does not tell me what "P" is "r" is or "t" is...I just assumed that P is the price $120 and r is the anual interest rate percentage and t is the time it was in there...but when you multiply (120*.04*6) you get $28.80? So can somebody explain to me what the letters in I=Prt stand for and how to get the answer using this specific equation? Thank you!

I know this question is over a month old and that you probably already have the answer, but I came across it in a search and though I would answer you just in case you were still wondering.
Usually,
I is interest
P=principal (also can be initial, etc)
R=rate
T=Time (in YEARS)

That's where your mistake was.
You should have used 1/2 for T, not 6.

Sorry for answering so late.
As I said, I'm sure you have figured out by now.

I've wanted to be an algebra teacher for as long as I can remember and only recently changed my major from math to special education, but I still have math on my brain & still love it, so I knew your mistake the instant I saw this & felt like I had to answer.

S_C
17/f

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(Rating: 5) no i didn't have an answer yet. thank you

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