Interest

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Interest

by talaangoshtari » Thu Jun 04, 2015 9:40 pm
A sum of money amounts to $49440 in three years and $50400 in five years at the same interest rate. Find the rate of interest per annum.

A.8
B.9
C.10
D.11
E.12
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Fri Jun 05, 2015 6:04 am
A sum of money amounts to $49440 in three years and $50400 in five years at the same interest rate. Find the rate of interest per annum.

A.8
B.9
C.10
D.11
E.12
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If your principal at the end of Year 3 were 49,440, and you earned 8% interest that year, your principal at the end of Year 4 would already exceed 50,400.
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by GMATGuruNY » Fri Jun 05, 2015 6:09 am
talaangoshtari wrote:A sum of money amounts to $49440 in three years and $50400 in five years at the same interest rate. Find the rate of interest per annum.

A.8
B.9
C.10
D.11
E.12
The problem should make it clear that interest accrues ONLY on the original investment.

(amount after 5 years) - (amount after 3 years) = 50400 - 49440 = $960.
Since $960 is earned in the 2 years between the 3rd and 5th years, the amount of interest earned each year = 960/2 = $480.
Since the account contains $49440 after earning $480 per year for 3 years, the original investment = 49440 - (3*480) = 48000.
Since $48000 earns $480 each year, the annual interest rate is [spoiler]1%[/spoiler].

The correct answer is not among the 5 options.
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by talaangoshtari » Fri Jun 05, 2015 6:23 am
Hi GMATGuruNY,

I found this problem on the internet, but the question was without answer choices. I wrote the answer choices. Actually, I thought the correct answer is 10...

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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Fri Jun 05, 2015 7:05 am
Even if we ignore the answer choices, we still need to know whether we're talking SIMPLE interest or COMPOUND interest.

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