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how long will capital last if reducing by 4.27% pa

 Aug 11, 2014

Best Answer 

 #1
avatar+130511 
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Well...that depends upon what amount we're starting with....

Notice that the worth of the capital at the end of each successive year is only 95.73% of the ending amount in the prior year....

Let's see how long it will take one dollar to be worth less than a penny.....so we have...

.01 = 1(.9573)t = (.9573)t

Take the log of both sides

log (.01) = t log(.9573)

log(.01)/(log.9573) = t ≈ 105.53 yrs ≈ 106 years

Somewhat surprising, huh??

Now, less suppose that we started with 100 dollars...so we have

.01 = 100(.9573)t    divide both sides by 100

.0001 = (.9573)t   take the log of both sides

log(.0001)/(log.9573) = t ≈ 212 years

Here's the graph of the situation if we start with $1

 Also notice, that, theoretically, we're never "broke" because an exponential graph is never equal to 0 !!!

 

 

 

 Aug 11, 2014
 #1
avatar+130511 
+10
Best Answer

Well...that depends upon what amount we're starting with....

Notice that the worth of the capital at the end of each successive year is only 95.73% of the ending amount in the prior year....

Let's see how long it will take one dollar to be worth less than a penny.....so we have...

.01 = 1(.9573)t = (.9573)t

Take the log of both sides

log (.01) = t log(.9573)

log(.01)/(log.9573) = t ≈ 105.53 yrs ≈ 106 years

Somewhat surprising, huh??

Now, less suppose that we started with 100 dollars...so we have

.01 = 100(.9573)t    divide both sides by 100

.0001 = (.9573)t   take the log of both sides

log(.0001)/(log.9573) = t ≈ 212 years

Here's the graph of the situation if we start with $1

 Also notice, that, theoretically, we're never "broke" because an exponential graph is never equal to 0 !!!

 

 

 

CPhill Aug 11, 2014

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