Investment word problems involve simple and compound interest. In these problems, an individual deposits a specific amount of money, called the principal, into a bank account that has a particular interest rate. The account accrues interest over a period of time, which is money paid into your account by the bank. Basically, the bank [...]

You’ve ridden in a car enough times to know it travels a specific rate, such as miles per hour, to reach its destination. You’ve also seen the speed limit signs designating the maximum rate allowed for a particular stretch of road. If you look up directions to a place you want to go, then [...]

While the fundamental counting principle, permutations, and combinations deal with all possible combinations that can occur, probability deals with the likelihood of a specific event occurring. For example, you know that when you toss a penny it is just as likely the penny will land heads up as it will land tails up. The [...]

Combinations, another variation of the fundamental counting principle, come into play when the order of the selected elements from the single set does not matter. For example, the ice‐cream store has a special for a cup of ice‐cream with five flavors (no toppings), but you cannot choose the same flavor again for any of [...]

Permutations are a variation of the fundamental counting principle except that you are determining a certain number of combinations from a single set. More importantly, the order in which you choose elements from the set matters. For example, you would use permutations when making a password (123 is not the same as 321). Also, [...]

The Fundamental Counting Principle determines the number of combinations one can make with data pulled from independent sets. For example, an ice‐cream store has many flavors of ice cream and many types of toppings. The flavors are elements in one set while the toppings are elements in another set. If you are allowed to [...]

A sequence in math is a series of values or objects that occur in a specific order and are related in a specific way. Your job is to determine how that specific order occurs; in other words, you must recognize the pattern of the terms in the sequence. You may be asked to solve [...]

Percent of change is used to measure a specific percent increase or decrease of an integer or measurement, such as a discount on an item, marking up the price of an item, or changing the size of a geometric shape. Basically, you find the difference between the original value and the new value and [...]

A percent is a mathematical relationship between two quantities where one quantity is a particular portion of the other quantity. This relationship is always defined within the context of a certain number of parts out of 100 parts, where the first number is the percentage. You can determine what percent a quantity is of [...]

A ratio demonstrates a mathematical relationship between two quantities, and can be represented as a fraction, two numbers joined by a colon, or two numbers joined by the word “to.” If the ratio is a fraction, generally the first value mentioned goes in the numerator while the second value goes in the denominator. If [...]