Question

Can't even do the 1st problem set. I'm not sure what to do, given it's meant to be so utterly basic. Frankly it's because I'm so out of the loop with maths that it's been rather confusing. Any tips, or is this just not for me?

Edit: So I'm on problem set 1 part b. God knows how I managed to get a done. I'm having trouble even visualising or writing the 'problem' down in plain English. So far I've written:

"In 12 months I need to pay balance."
"Every month balance * monthlyinterest will be added to the balance"
"Every month the balance will reduce by x/12"

Just to give you an idea of my 'thought' process ^

Answer 1

Would you be able to provide the question? I don't know where to find the problem sets. I don't know if I'll be much help as it is, but who knows!

Thanks!

Answer 2

Believe me, anything will be good. I've linked it below, if that doesn't work I'll attach the file:

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00sc-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-spring-2011/unit-1/lecture-4-machine-interpretation-of-a-program/MIT6_00SCS11_ps1.pdf

Answer 3

It works and I'm looking at it now!

Answer 4

Alright, cheers.

Answer 5

I don't see where part b is. Or part a!

Answer 6

Ah sorry. Part a is the first 'problem' set in the pdf, then the next one is 'b'. So problem 2 = b.

Answer 7

Okay! Thanks.

Answer 8

No problem, thanks to you too ^

Answer 9

Here's how I see it. I haven't done it, but:

So, the issue is finding the minimum monthly payment that lets you pay off the whole thing within a year, even considering interest! But, your monthly payment is in multiples of $10, and you make at most 12 payments. So, it's not exact, and you overpay (usually). And that's why the debt is negative in the end.

"In 12 months I need to pay balance."
It could be 12 or less, looking at that one example.

"Every month balance * monthlyinterest will be added to the balance"
Right!
"Every month the balance will reduce by x/12"
I see it as reducing by the minimum monthly payment that you calculate.

Answer 10

How does that sound so far?

Answer 11

Ah, that's helpful. You've cleared up the last bit I wrote at least, and it's good to know I was right about one thing. It's just such an awkward process right now at the beginning of this - feels as if I'm attempting to re-wire how I think. And as I mentioned it's probably my 'break' from maths which hasn't helped!

Answer 12

It looks like maybe we can just guess minimum monthly payments (in increments of $10) and see which is the first to make the total debt $0 or less!

Answer 13

Cool! I don't do a whole lot of programming, but it rewires how I think!

And math does help, but you can get through it as you go! This is a lot of working with the formulas they give you, and learning the definitions of the fancy money terms and understanding them algebraically.

Answer 14

Yeah, the idea is to guess as you said, and then keep going up until you hit that particular target *nod*

Answer 15

Haha, cool. It doesn't suggest that you have to use a particular starting point. You could start by suggesting a minimum monthly payment of $0 and see how that works out. And then $10, then $20...

The next section in the document mentions a sure way to start later than $0 and still be good, but it seems like you don't have to worry about that yet.

However, I don't recommend that you start at $0. It won't work and makes no sense for paying off debt! So start at $10, or read ahead!

Answer 16

What language are you coding in?

Answer 17

Python.

Answer 18

Oh! I don't know Python. But I can help with the methodology when you need. Do you have an idea where to go from here?

Answer 19

I've sort of decided to leave it for tonight, I think. You've helped though for sure, it's just remarkable how I ended up going over it in my head and getting nowhere =/

Answer 20

Sometimes looking at it too much is just boggling! So take a break as you are, and you might be making it easier on yourself later! :)

Answer 21

I'm going to write some stuff for you to check out when you come back to it.

Answer 22

Hah yeah, cheers. And I'll gladly take any tips going ^^

Answer 23

Okay! First tip: know what you need to find out! That's the minimum payment, as a multiple of ten, to pay off the loan. And then you can find how many months it took and how much you overpaid. So you need all of them, but you can use the "minimum payment" to find the "number of months it took" and "overpayment."


Second tip: consider what you know. That is, what your input is. That is the information you might (and do) NEED to understand your specific situation so that you can discover a specific answer. Now, the computer works with all these numbers, but you give it the rules and tell it how to handle whatever specific numbers come through.

You are given (as it states):
1. the outstanding balance
That's how much debt you start off with.
2. the annual interest rate as a decimal
That will give you the monthly interest rate if you divide it by twelve. That's helpful, because....


Third tip! After you know what information you're getting, you need to consider your know-how to get from "information" to "result." You can consider what you know how to do and view that as a set of tools to hack at the problem. So, what tool is right for this problem? Well, pattern recognition is one... often good wherever you see repetition.

So, what kind of pattern is there? What keeps happening? How many times does it happen?
Hint: and are you checking for something as you go along?

Fourth tip! This is more general for programming. Know what variables you need to keep track of!

Good luck! If you need more help, feel free to ask! I'm not going to be too specific about how I would answer this problem because you won't learn that way. It seems like you'll want to learn, and building the thought process is more important than getting an answer correct.

Best of luck! :)

Answer 24

The 6.000 course jumps in just a couple weeks. They expect people to have tried the basics of programming before the class!

If you watch the first 10 to 15 short videos here:
https://buckysroom.org/videos.php?cat=36

You will have a lot better idea of the basics and following the MIT professor will be easier.

Answer 25

Hello all, again.

So basically I'm just struggling with how to 'translate' something into python:

I want to do "x" every month.

So far my code for problem 1b is:

balance = raw_input('Vot is the outstanding balance?')
InrAn = raw_input('Vot is the annual interest rate as a decimal?')
InrAn = float(InrAn)
balance = float(balance)
numMonths = 1
monthPay = 10
monthInr = InrAn/12.0

while balance >= 0 etc.

Answer 26

Might want to close this and open a new question so that more people have a chance to see it as a fresh problem that has no answers.