Question

I'm so horribly confused. Just got to lecture 4 and (have yet to watch it) but technically Problem set 1 is due then and in that case I feel like I should how to do it. The problem is, I'm not too sure.

So far, I've got
x = 5
epsilon = .2

That's it... Is there anybody out there who thinks they could at least lead me in the right direction? (I'd rather not have the answer outright, what's the point of just seeing the answer?)

Thanks in advance...

Answer 1

Which version of the course are you following? There are different problem set 1s depending on whether you are following the Fall 2008 or Spring 2011 course. Your question didn't give enough context to work out what you are trying to do.

Answer 2

Whoops, sorry about that. I'm on he 2011 version and its asking to bnce a credit card debt of 4800 dollars with certain unt of interest each year. I'll give more details when I get home as in wing from phone right owe the mobile Site is not a st.Ever see(kind of reminds me of facebook)

Answer 3

I found it helpful to first of all write out what I was trying to work out. Then work out what I needed to keep track of and only then to write the program.

For the first problem
Each month
There is an opening debt_owed.
You have to calculate the interest on the debt_owed (which is paid to the bank).
You have to also calculate that months minimum payment
at the end of the month debt_owed is reduced by the minimum payment less the interest which has been paid to the bank.
That reduced debt_owed is then the opening figure for the next month.
If the period is one year then you have to repeat the monthly calculations 12 times

When I got to writing the program I found it helpful to start by writing just a single months calculation first then writing the monthly loop when I was satisfied the first month worked.

In the second problem you are trying to work out what payment would allow the debt_owed to disappear after 12 months. So you need to create a loop that tries different payments (in $10 increments) and then test each one to see if the closing debt_owed is <=0 .The first problem allowed you to calculate what would be owed after 12 months so you can adapt that code to form the test part.

Hope that helps a bit

Answer 4

You can download the solution and look at it, it's on the same page as where the problem set it.