For this DQ, you’ll complete Technology Assignment 1 in Lesson 2-3 of the textbook in ALEKS, for which you’ll look at simple interest accruing in an account over a number of years.

Analysis of Simple Interest Accrual Using Excel- Technology Assignment 1

Start by downloading the “QR 2-3 Tech Template.xlsx” Excel template from the resources in ALEKS, referring to the instructions from Topic 1 DQ 2 or Topic 2 DQ 1. The video titled “Tech Hints QR 2-3” in the media section of the textbook in ALEKS provides additional assistance with the template, including using absolute cell references in formulas and using the fill-down feature to copy formulas in Excel.

Here are the elements you’ll need to include in this DQ; note that these vary a bit from the instructions in the template:

You have entered formulas in cells D9:D28 to calculate the total interest earned by years 11 through 30. Your formulas must include absolute cell references for the principal in A2 and the interest rate in B2, as demonstrated in the formulas in D3:D8. (Hint: this column can easily be completed using the “fill down” feature in Excel.)
You have entered formulas in cells E3:E28 to calculate the account balance earned through year 30. Here, the formula for each year must use an absolute cell reference to the principal (either from cell A2 or cell E2) and a relative cell reference to the total interest earned from column D. (Hint: once you create a formula in E3, you can use the “fill down” feature in Excel to complete this column as well.)
You have entered a value in the green text box that is the starting Principal needed (using an interest rate of 5% in B2) to end up with a 10-year account balance of exactly $10,000.01 in cell E8. (Hint: to end up with exactly $10,000.01, you’ll need to specify the Principal amount in A2 to the nearest cent.)
You have entered a value in the blue text box that is the interest rate needed (using a starting principal of $600) to end up with a 10-year account balance of exactly $10,000.00 in cell E8. (Hint: to end up with exactly $10,000.00, the interest rate will end up having 6 significant decimals. You can enter your response here as either a decimal or a percentage.)
You have formatted the interest rate in B2 as a Percentage with 4 decimal places. (Note that you may need to widen column B in order for the full number to display; if you see hash marks (######) in the cell, this is an indication that the column isn’t yet wide enough for your display.) This means that after you reset the value in B2 to 0.05, it should display as either 0.050000 or as 5.0000%.
(Also note that there are a few typos in the template: in the green box, the references to A1 should be to A2 instead; in the blue box, the references to A2 should be to B2 instead, and the reference to A8 should be to E8 instead.)