Sample Spreadsheet

Investing and Borrowing Money, Moodle Project

Completed as a requriement of the Masters of Learning Science and Technology course at the University of Sydney, 2007.

By Annette Culley:

Home to Instructional Design Australia 

 

Compound Interest by repeated use of Simple interest formula 
where I is the interest, P the principal, R the annual interest rate and T the number of years
This problem presents the compounding interest on an investment of $500 for 3 years with interest of 6% calculated annually
i.e. 6% per annum interest  = 6 / 100 = 0.06
Principle Rate  Time in years Interest after 1 year Total after 1 year Interest for second year Total after 2 years Interest in third year Total after three years
      formula  =A12+B12*C12 formula =A12+D12 formula = E12*B12*C12 formula =E12+F12 formula =G12*B12*C12 formula =G12+H12
500 0.06 1 30 530 31.8 561.8 33.708 595.508
Questions            
1. How much interest is earnt in the first year?  
2. How much interest is earnt in the second year?  
3 How much interest is earnt in the thrid year?  
4. Why do these amount differ from year to year even thouth the interest rate is constant at 6%?  
5.  If this was a simple interest rate (a flat rate of interest) how much inerest would it earn in year 1, 2 and 3?
Activities              
5. Try different principal investments to see the changes in other values.  
6. Try different rates of interest and observe the changes in other values.  Note: do not save your changes when you close this file

Back to Instructional Design Australia