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Grade 11

Simple VS Compound

Lesson

Now that we've had a good look at both simple interest and compound interest, let's compare them side by side. 

example

Let's say we have $\$10000$$10000 to invest and we have two options.

Option 1: Invest at $5%$5% per annum simple interest

Option 2: Invest at $4.5%$4.5% per annum compound interest, compounded annually

At first glance it appears that the higher interest rate in Option 1 would naturally be the better choice, but let's see what happens.

Year Simple Interest Compound Interest Simple Interest Balance Compound Interest Balance
$1$1 $500$500 $450$450 $10500$10500 $10450$10450
$2$2 $500$500 $470.25$470.25 $11000$11000 $10920.25$10920.25
$3$3 $500$500 $491.41$491.41 $11500$11500 $11411.66$11411.66
$4$4 $500$500 $513.52$513.52 $12000$12000 $11925.18$11925.18
$5$5 $500$500 $536.63$536.63 $12500$12500 $12641.81$12641.81
$6$6 $500$500 $560.78$560.78 $13000$13000 $13022.59$13022.59

We can see that the interest remains constant each year for simple interest but due to the nature of compounding, the interest is increasing each year. At the 6 year mark, the balance for the compound interest option yields a greater return.

Let's look at the same situation, but this time let's look at what happens if Option 2 was compounded monthly.

Simple Interest Balance after 6 years: $\$13000$$13000

Compound Interest Balance after 6 years, compounded annually: $\$13022.59$$13022.59

Compound Interest Balance after 6 years, compounded monthly: $10000\left(1+\frac{4.5}{100\times12}\right)^{\left(12\times6\right)}$10000(1+4.5100×12)(12×6)=$\$13093.03$$13093.03

We can see here that the more often the investment is compounded, the greater the amount of interest accrued. 

Worked Examples

example 1

example 2

Outcomes

11U.C.3.2

Make and describe connections between compound interest, geometric sequences, and exponential growth, through investigation with technology

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