Suppose you have $100 in a savings account earning 2 percent interest a year. After five years, would you have more than $102, exactly $102 or less than $102?

More than $102
Less than $102
Exactly $102



Answer :

Hey there! Hello!

For this problem, take the interest equation into account: [tex]I = Prt[/tex]. [tex]I[/tex] is the interest, [tex]P[/tex] is the principal amount that will be invested, [tex]r[/tex] is the rate of interest per year (expressed in decimal form, where 90% is 0.9, for example), and [tex]t[/tex] is the amount of time. Let's solve the amount of money gained from interest after one year:

[tex]I = Prt[/tex]
[tex]I=100*0.02*1[/tex]
[tex]I=2[/tex]

That means 2 dollars are earned after one year. If $102 is the total after one year, and interest is earned yearly, it surely can't be $102 at the end of five years. So, let's solve for five years this time:

[tex]I = Prt[/tex]
[tex]I=100*0.02*5[/tex]
[tex]I=10[/tex]

So, at the end of five years, $110 will be earned. This is more than $102 dollars, meaning that your first answer choice is the correct one. 

Hope this helped you out! Feel free to ask me any additional questions you may have. :-)