The Complete How to Figure It

The Complete How to Figure It Table of Contents

Just a word p. v Lifetime Money Strategy p. 2 What's Future Money Worth Now? p. 3 Whither the Dollar? p. 4 Quick Look at Monthly Money p. 6 How a Retirement Plan Grows p. 7 Figuring Inflation into Retirement p. 7 How Much Life Insurance? p. 8 Forecasting Your Income p. 9 Are You Throwing Away a House? p. 10 Living on a Savings Account p. 13 Appraise a Bank Bargain p. 14 Strategy for Checking p. 14 Factoring Inflation into Income p. 16 How Much Can You Take Out? p. 18 Casing Inflation p. 19 That Old Bugaboo, Average Rate of Increase p. 20 The Mortgage that Pays YOU p. 21 Lazy Person's Withdrawal Chart p. 23 Money Now or Money Later? p. 24 Prepay That Mortgage? p. 26 Some Personal Things p. 28 Figuring Your Life Expectancy p. 29 Decisions: His Way or Hers? p. 30 Does College Pay? p. 32 Getting Pregnant p. 34 Does a Second Job Pay? p. 35 Junior Doses p. 39 Chart Your Biorhythms? p. 39 Interest and Saving p. 44 Yield and the Rule of 72 p. 45 Fooling Around with Old 72 p. 46 What's That Rate of Return? p. 47 The Day You Save p. 48 Figuring Simple Interest p. 49 Figuring Compound Interest p. 50 Interest Compounded Continuously p. 51 Effective Rate of Interest p. 53 Beware the Iron Law p. 53 How Much Goes for Interest? p. 56 When Interest Rates Change p. 57 The Interesting e p. 58 Comparing Retirement Plans p. 59 Interest by Calculator p. 61 How Regular Savings Grow p. 62 Saving: How Much per Month? p. 63 Figuring a Set-Aside p. 65 How Much Interest Are You Getting? p. 66 Investing p. 68 Finding Earned-Growth Rate p. 69 Tailoring an Investment p. 69 Local Taxes and Investing p. 71 Keogh? Ira? p. 71 Compounding Your Money p. 73 Retirement Fund Accumulation p. 74 What Does an Annuity Cost? p. 75 How Much Annuity Can You Buy? p. 76 What's an Annuity Worth? p. 77 Decoding the Phony "Average Return" p. 78 How Does Dollar Averaging Work? p. 80 Super Dollar-Cost Averaging p. 81 Value-Averaging Your Investment p. 82 What's a Tax-Exempt Bond Worth? p. 82 Income from Capital p. 84 How'd That Investment Do? p. 85 The Moving Average p. 85 How Much Does a Treasury Bill Yield? p. 86 Is Tax-Free for You? p. 87 What Percent Does a Stock Yield? p. 88 Figuring Percentage Gain p. 90 Total Return and the Deceptive Average p. 91 Understanding Bond Language p. 92 Other People's Money p. 94 The Everlasting Payoff p. 95 Credit: How Much Is Too Much? p. 97 How's Your Credit Rating? p. 98 Real Cost of a Discounted Loan p. 99 Calculating the Cost of Credit p. 100 Figuring an Early Payoff p. 101 Payoff Rule of 78s p. 102 When You Make Partial Payment p. 102 How Big Is That Carrying Charge? p. 103 What, Borrow on My Life Insurance? p. 105 Getting a Home Loan p. 106 Hiring the Money p. 107 How Much Can You Get? p. 108 That Important Percent p. 109 Variable or Fixed? p. 110 Those Tricky Points p. 112 Penalties, Options, Balloons p. 113 Closing Costs p. 114 Assume or Buy Subject To? p. 114 How About a Second? p. 115 The Land Contract p. 116 Trying a Mortgage for Size p. 117 How Much per Year? p. 117 Figuring a FLIP p. 119 Cost of a Mortgage Bargain p. 120 Hidden Side of a Home Loan p. 121 How Much Will Your Payments Be? p. 122 Setting Up a Payment Schedule p. 124 Spending p. 126 The (Relatively) Painless Budget p. 127 Buy Now? Buy Later? p. 129 How Much Inflation? p. 130 Puzzle of the Price Markup p. 132 What's That Price Increase? p. 132 A Look Today at Tomorrow's Costs p. 133 Realism at the Supermarket p. 135 Buy Meat Wholesale? p. 137 High Cost of Living Like a Dog p. 138 How Much Rebate? p. 138 Inflation and the Metric Trick p. 139 Measuring Things p. 140 Human Yardstick p. 141 How's the Wind Up There? p. 141 Power of a Wave p. 142 Weighing with Coins p. 143 Comparing TV Picture Sizes p. 143 Measuring the Unmeasurable p. 144 How Tall Is It? p. 144 Height by Trig p. 146 How Big Is a Tree? p. 146 Speed of Sound in Water p. 146 How Much Does It Slope? p. 147 Light Through a Prism p. 148 Estimating Water Flow p. 149 How Far Away Is It? p. 150 How Fast the Fall? p. 151 How Deep the Well? p. 152 The Metric Nickel p. 153 How High Is Up? p. 153 Measuring Height by Angle p. 154 How Big a Pinhole? p. 154 How Fast Will It Cool? p. 155 How Cold Will It Get? p. 156 Recipes for Odd Numbers p. 157 House Planning p. 158 Where To Live p. 159 How Big a House? p. 159 How Much Wind Can This Building Take? p. 160 Figuring Window Location p. 161 Costly Window Placement p. 164 How Much Glass? p. 165 How Much Solar Overhang? p. 167 Choosing a Solar Angle p. 167 Fighting Noise Pollution p. 168 Figuring Plumbing Plans p. 173 Building Things p. 176 Aggregate for Concrete p. 177 Figuring Ready-Mix p. 177 When You Mix Concrete p. 178 Framing: 16- or 24-Inch? p. 179 Expansion of Acrylic Sheets p. 180 Figuring Kitchen Cabinets p. 180 How Stout Is Rough Lumber? p. 182 How Big a Beam from a Log? p. 183 To Build a Winding Stairway p. 184 How to Figure Steps p. 185 Measuring at Home p. 188 How Big Is a Room? p. 189 Three-Four-Five Is Not the Only Square p. 190 When an Area Is Irregular p. 192 How Many Floor Tiles? p. 193 How Many Squares to a Roof? p. 193 Wallpaper: How Many Rolls? p. 194 Measuring for Paneling p. 195 How Much Paint? p. 196 To Draw a Contour Map p. 197 How Much Water Are You Using? p. 199 How Hard Is Your Water? p. 200 To Measure a Chair p. 201 Rafters and Beams p. 202 To Cut a Rafter p. 203 The Tangent and the Rafter p. 204 Beams: How Strong, How Stiff? p. 206 Strength of a Beam p. 207 When Beams Get B-I-G p. 210 Case of the Unequally Loaded Beam p. 211 Figuring Deflection p. 212 Anyone for Cantilevers? p. 214 Horizontal Shear p. 216 Around the House p. 218 How Many Degree Days? p. 219 Sizing a Wood Stove p. 219 Cord of Wood, Ton of Coal p. 220 Wood or Coal? p. 220 Comparing Furnace Efficiencies p. 221 What Does Heat Cost? p. 221 How Much Heat Loss? p. 223 Costing a Heat Pump p. 225 Heat Storage, Heat Loss p. 225 Trying a Cooler for Size p. 226 Meeting Insulation Requirements p. 227 Figuring Areas for Insulation p. 228 How Much Insulation? p. 228 Shading a House p. 230 To Ventilate a House p. 230 What's a Square Foot of Ventilation? p. 232 How Much Can the Sun Save You? p. 232 Capacity of a Solar Water Heater p. 234 What Will a Circuit Take? p. 235 What's a Switch Worth? p. 235 Working Out an Island Sink p. 236 Loading a Waterbed p. 237 Aiming a Satellite Dish p. 238 Operating Your Shelter p. 240 To Build a House p. 241 Managing a Mortgage p. 244 Shrink a Mortgage? p. 247 Your Depreciating House p. 247 How to Sell a House p. 249 Property-Tax Strategy p. 250 How Much Home Insurance? p. 252 Cost-Effective Energy Saver? p. 254 Fueling the Water Heater p. 255 How Much Heat in Firewood? p. 256 What Does Fuel Cost? p. 257 Mobile Home--Does It Figure? p. 258 Free Color TV? p. 262 Cork in the Eye p. 263 Workshop Numbers p. 264 How Big a Box? p. 265 How Wide Is This Board? p. 265 To Divide a Board p. 266 How Big the Bolt or Screw? p. 267 Confounded Compound Cuts p. 267 How Big a Pipe Wrench? p. 268 From RPM to SFM in One Jump p. 268 Shelf Math p. 269 Figuring Torque p. 270 What Size Wrench? p. 271 How Fat a Wire? p. 271 Radius of an Arc p. 272 How Tall Is My Grandfather? p. 272 Your Car p. 274 What Does a Car Cost? p. 275 How Long to Charge a Battery p. 279 What Do Skid Marks Tell? p. 279 Going Sixty p. 280 Analyzing Gas-Station Lines p. 281 Engine Displacement p. 282 Travel p. 284 Jet Lag p. 285 Tactics for Travel Funds p. 286 What Does Devaluation Cost? p. 289 Global Distances p. 290 The Tricky Average Speed p. 291 Your Clothing Size p. 291 More Dangerous Way To Go? p. 293 How Warm Is a Sleeping Bag? p. 293 Liters, Kilometers, Gallons p. 295 What's That in Real Money? p. 296 Finding a Mach Number p. 298 Thinking About Time Travel p. 299 Einstein: Mass at Speed p. 300 Outdoors p. 302 Weigh a Mountain, Measure a Pond p. 303 Water Over the Dam p. 304 Water Power Calculated Quickly p. 306 Horsepower in a Stream p. 307 Water and Kilowatts p. 307 How Far Can You See at Sea? p. 308 The Accurate Cricket p. 309 Camera's Hyperfocal Distance p. 309 Need a Ped Xing? p. 311 Acceleration from Gravity p. 312 How To Bank a Road p. 313 Underpass for a Bicycle p. 314 When the Tide? p. 315 How High the Tide? p. 316 Ship's Propulsion Power p. 318 How Far the Projectile? p. 318 Quick Height Measurement p. 319 How High the Shot? p. 320 How Long to Fall? p. 321 Where on Earth Is It? p. 321 Speed and Power p. 323 Figuring Air Pressure p. 324 Siting a Windmill p. 324 How Much Wind Is Enough? p. 324 That Wind-Chill Factor p. 325 How Many Stars? p. 326 To Rate a Quake p. 327 Figuring Binoculars p. 327 Fun and Games p. 330 How Far Can a Gamble Miss? p. 331 Will You Win a Trifecta? p. 332 Balancing a Tournament p. 334 The Cool, Calculating Tennist p. 335 Basic Blackjack p. 335 Doing Better at 21 p. 337 Actually Winning at Blackjack p. 340 Horseshoe Math p. 341 Business Decisions p. 342 Real-Estate Cash Flow p. 343 How Cash Flow Works p. 343 What's the Profit Rate? p. 345 Buying Earned-Growth Rate p. 345 Figuring Fiscal Ratios p. 346 How Durable the Building? p. 348 Counting Absenteeism p. 349 Conversions p. 350 Minutes and Seconds to Decimals p. 351 Heat by the Watt p. 351 Strength of Steel p. 351 Quick Metric: Temperature p. 352 Quick Metric: Length p. 352 Quick Metric: Weight and Volume p. 353 Measuring Angles p. 353 Those Metric Prefixes p. 354 Jumping from Log to Log p. 354 Do As the Romans Did p. 355 Decimal to Fraction and Back p. 356 Going in Circles p. 357 Parlez-Vous Hexadecimal? p. 357 Math in a Hurry p. 360 Breaking Down Numbers p. 361 Great Chief Sohcahtoa p. 362 The Squaring Trick p. 362 Halving a Mixed Fraction p. 363 Pint's a Pound p. 364 Illusion of the Shifting Base p. 364 The Catch-22 Deduction p. 365 Totaling Fibonaccis p. 365 Multiply Like a Peasant? p. 366 Easy Iteration p. 367 Smidgens to Oodles p. 368 What, Me Solve Quadratics? p. 370 Add-On Taxes and Take-Off Discounts p. 371 Depreciation by Sum of Years' Digits p. 371 Addition Helper p. 371 Add Without Carrying p. 372 Subtract Without Subtracting p. 372 Mix It the Midpoint Way p. 373 Better Way to Mix It? p. 374 Triangle a Problem p. 374 How Big Is a Triangle? p. 376 Approximate a Time Payment p. 376 What Percent of...? p. 378 Percents, Decimals, Fractions p. 378 Quick Fractions p. 379 That Tricky Percentage Increase p. 379 Chance and Statistics p. 380 Heads or Tails? p. 381 The Triangle of Chance p. 382 Probability by Subtraction p. 385 Flip a Coin p. 386 Zips and Plates p. 387 Learning from a Sample p. 388 The Rabbit-Sandwich Average p. 390 Standard Deviation Two Ways p. 391 How to Get Facts from Figures p. 392 Looking a Correlation in the Eye p. 395 Reality And Illusion p. 398 How to Draw a Fact p. 399 Hornswoggled by a Bar Chart? p. 400 The Illusory Line Graph p. 401 Figures Don't Lie? p. 404 How to Find a Prominent Number p. 406 The Prisoner's Dilemma p. 407 Conquering a Map Chart p. 409 Taking a Problem Apart p. 410 How Lethal Is My Warhead? p. 411 Those Awful Work Problems p. 412 Stretching A Calculator p. 414 Calculator Counting p. 415 Dividing into a Number p. 415 Percentages by Calculator p. 416 Square Roots and Diagonals p. 417 Cube Root and Beyond p. 417 Divide by Multiplying p. 418 Finding the Remarkable e p. 419 The Hyperbolic Rope p. 420 Squares and More p. 420 Calculating Reciprocals p. 421 Two Reciprocal Tricks p. 421 Finding Sums of Products p. 423 Coping with Big, Bad Numbers p. 424 Bigger, Badder Numbers p. 425 Memory at the Market p. 426 To Make a Payment Book p. 427 Easy Calculator Subtraction p. 428 Testing a Scientific Calculator p. 428 Calculator Superstretcher p. 430 Computer Does Numbers p. 432 Your 50-Pound Pocket Calculator? p. 433 BASIC Tips for Math-by-Computer p. 436 Table of Powers p. 437 Watch Your Money Grow p. 438 Anatomy of a Program p. 439 From Interest to Yield p. 440 How Big a Beam? p. 441 Rent or Buy? p. 445 Loan Payments Figured Fast p. 446 Print a Payment Table p. 447 The Mortgage-Payoff Miracle p. 448 Index p. 451