Keeping The Reins Tight….

Things I learned during a weekend in Washington, DC with a gaggle of mathematicians.

1. I still lose track of cash.
2. Airport water is overpriced.
3. Saving the ’snack’ from each leg of your flight make great additions to your lunch the next day at work.
4. 30, 31 minute connections in Atlanta leave no time to stop for food or drinks. This saves a lot of money.
5. A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee beer into theorems.
6. Impromptu training sessions can lead to multiple consulting opportunities.
7. I should invest in business cards so I’m not writing my contact information on legal pads for said consulting opportunities.
8. People know who the new kid is but then get offended when said new kid doesn’t know who they are. Whoops.
9. Since I don’t occupy the whole airplane seat, other passengers feel the need to use the part of the seat I don’t.
10. Expense reports are a pain.

Either way the weekend was a lot of fun. If I follow through with the leads and research opportunities created, my career will hit the fast track in the next few years.

The best part? I have another conference this weekend.

Note: Getting Your Baseball Fix for Cheap was included in the 146th Carnival of Personal Finance.

Subscribe to this feed! * del.icio.us * Digg it * StumbleUpon

Photo Credit: Uffie

With tonight’s Powerball drawing upon us, I have a few odds that might make you think twice about wasting your hard earned money.

Given that you did not match the Powerball:

Given that you did match the Powerball:

Odds of Winning the Jackpot :

One out of 146,107,962.

In other words you have a better chance of bowling a 300 game (11,500 to 1), winning an Olympic medal (662,000 to 1), pulling a Warren Harding and drowning in the bathtub (685,000 to 1), or being being struck by lightning (2,320,000 to 1).

The expected value of today’s drawing has a positive return $0.78 per dollar spent. However, you need to match all five numbers and the powerball to have a positive return. The expected value for any other combination is still negative, thus in the houses favor.

Is the lottery for suckers? Did you buy a ticket for tonight’s drawing?

Technorati Tags: Lottery, Gambling, Probability, Math

Subscribe to this feed! * del.icio.us * Digg it * StumbleUpon

The other day, I posted the bonus questions to a recent Algebra Test. If you want the non-solutioned version, go to the original post. The rest of you, keep reading.

Question 1: Mr. ‘A’’s investment is now worth $650,000. 30 years ago, he invested some amount into an account that yielded 4% interest. How much was his initial investment?

We need to use the interest formula under the assumption that the interest is being compounded annualy.

A=P(1 + r)^t

where A = account balance, P = principal invested, r = interest rate (in decimal form!) and t = time. (in years)

Substitute the values from the problem.

650,000 = P(1+.04)^30
650,000 = P(3.24)
200,407.13 = P

The $200,407.13 would grow into $650,000 over the course of thirty years at a constant 4% interest rate.

Question 2: You borrow $1000 from ‘A’ at 1 percent per day and pay nothing until the end of the year. At that point, you pay off all the money you owe. What is the size of your payment?

Again, we need to use the generic interest formula. Since we are given the interest rate in days, the variable t also measured in days.
A=P(1 + r)^t

where A = account balance, P = principal invested, r = interest rate (in decimal form!) and t = time. (in days)

Substitute the values from the problem.

A = 1,000(1+.01)^365
A = 1,001(1.416)
A = 1416.60

In this situation, you’d be paying an annual interest rate of 41.6%. Now only if I could find a sucker to take (and repay) this loan…

We spent Friday looking at the interest PayDay Lenders and Pawnshops charge; hopefully, some eyes where opened.

Subscribe to this feed! * del.icio.us * Digg it * StumbleUpon

Despite a snow advisory and a predicted 3-5 inches of snow, myself and the Boy Scouts are still planning on going camping tomorrow. At this point, I don’t think it is a wise decision for us to go; however, I don’t have the final say so. The boys were absolutely jazzed about going tonight, the mom’s not so much.

There’s something about driving through 2+ hours through snow and ice, hiking up a very technical trail that is already covered in snow, and then spending spending all night in freezing temperatures that just doesn’t appeal to me. I’d also really like to return the $45 dollars in cold weather gear I bought today in anticipation of things taking a turn for the worse.

I’ve gotten ’soft’ in my old-age.

Subscribe to this feed! * del.icio.us * Digg it * StumbleUpon