Finance and economics, grade 11 (3 units)

The mathematics of savings, loans, prices and pay: how money grows and shrinks over time, and how to read economic data.Subjects

The topics, in order:

processes of growth and decay: simple and compound interest, the growth and decay factor, the formula $\displaystyle {A}={A_0\cdot q^n}$ , the debt of a loan, a car’s falling value, inflation and the value of money;
decisions: comparing the offers of banks and of loans, and how many years it takes to reach a sum – by trying values and on the graph board;
a measure of spread: the standard deviation, and comparing investments by their mean and their risk;
quartiles and the box plot, deciles and percentiles – pay, incomes and reports in the news.

There are two kinds of lessons:

Learning lessons – an explanation, solved examples and a few questions to try;
Practice lessons – questions only.

How the page works: Using a page.

Last updated on 18.10.2026

Formulas: finance and economics, grade 11 (3 units)

Simple interest – $\displaystyle A_0$ the principal, $\displaystyle p$ the interest rate a year in percent, $\displaystyle n$ the number of years, $\displaystyle A$ the sum at the end
$\displaystyle A=A_0+n\cdot A_0\cdot\frac{p}{100}$
The growth factor – a rise of $\displaystyle p$ percent
$\displaystyle q=1+\frac{p}{100}$
The decay factor – a fall of $\displaystyle p$ percent
$\displaystyle q=1-\frac{p}{100}$
Growth and decay – $\displaystyle A_0$ the value at the start, $\displaystyle q$ the factor for a period, $\displaystyle n$ the number of periods, $\displaystyle A$ the value at the end
$\displaystyle A$ $\displaystyle =$ $\displaystyle A_0\cdot q^{n}$
The factor of two changes, one after the other
$\displaystyle q_1\cdot q_2$
Today’s value of a sum $\displaystyle A$ in $\displaystyle n$ years, when prices grow $\displaystyle q$ times every year
$\displaystyle \frac{A}{q^{n}}$
The rule of 72 – about how many years until a sum doubles, growing by $\displaystyle p$ percent a year
$\displaystyle n\approx\frac{72}{p}$

The mean of $\displaystyle n$ data
$\displaystyle \bar{x}=\frac{x_1+x_2+\dots+x_n}{n}$
The range
$\displaystyle x_{\max}-x_{\min}$
The variance – the mean of the squares of the deviations from the mean
$\displaystyle \sigma^{2}=\frac{(x_1-\bar{x})^{2}+(x_2-\bar{x})^{2}+\dots+(x_n-\bar{x})^{2}}{n}$
The standard deviation
$\displaystyle \sigma=\sqrt{\sigma^{2}}$

The place of the median in an ordered list of $\displaystyle n$ data
$\displaystyle \frac{n+1}{2}$
The interquartile range – $\displaystyle Q_1$ the lower quartile, $\displaystyle Q_3$ the upper quartile
$\displaystyle Q_3-Q_1$
The gap between the top and the bottom decile – how many times the mean income in decile 10 is that in decile 1
$\displaystyle \frac{\bar{x}_{10}}{\bar{x}_{1}}$