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Real-Life Activities

Real-Life Math

You're a documentary film producer with a great idea for a new film: it's about women in the textile industry. The problem is, you'll have to travel to research and get the visuals for this subject. You know expenses will be high.

While you have some grant money for the project, you figure you'll need an extra $15,000 to complete the project.

You already have offers from cable channels interested in showing the piece once it's completed. Based on this, you've decided to take out a loan with a federal funding agency.

The bank tells you it can loan $15,000 at an interest rate of 6 percent. Through a special agreement, you're not required to make any payments on the principal (the $15,000) of the loan until the film is finished.

You estimate it will take a year to complete the project, and you want to determine what you'll be spending on interest payments while you're working on the film.

The representative at the funding agency has given you this formula to help figure out the monthly interest payments:

Amount of loan x 6 percent = total interest
Total interest / 365 days of the year x the number of days from 1 payment to the next = monthly interest payment

You will be making payments on this loan every 30 days. Using this formula, figure out what your monthly payments will be on a loan of $15,000.