For what its worth - here is my revision of your program. I did not send
it earlier because I kept finding things that led me to want to see and
verify the fundamental algorithm. But now I think my observations could
also be useful.
My changes:
Changed indentation from 8 to 2. For me this is much more readable
and helps when there are several levels of indentation.
Others prefer 4
Removed all blank lines
Removed unnecessary if statements and started with count == 2
Changed sign of tuition (makes it a LOT easier to follow arithmetic)
Calcuate balance then use in print statement avoiding duplicate
calculation
Removed unnecessary ()
Used *= where appropriate
Used multiple assignment where appropriate
Changed tuitionInc to 1.041 thus simplifying calculation of new tuition
interest is misleading - it is the interest!
Questions:
Why calculate tuition increase twice?
Next has no explanatory text - what is it for?
print newBalance + interest
I wonder about if newBalance < tuition:
With the starting values you provided that case is never true
If it were true, principal = newBalance - tuition
should be under an else clause!
principal = balance = 500000 # Starting fund amount.
interestRate = .05 # Interest rate added to the principal annually.
tuition = 34986 # Starting tuition fee
tuitionInc = 1.041 # The annual increase applied to the tuition.
print principal, "Is the starting principal" # This is to show the
starting balance.
print tuition, "Is the starting tuition."
balance = principal - tuition
print balance," the amount remaining after first tuition deduction. "
interest = balance * interestRate # calculates the amount added to the fund
print interest, " Interest added to fund for one year. "
newBalance = balance + interest
print newBalance, "is the new balance."
count = 2 # keeps me informed on the number of students benefitting from
this grant.
while principal > tuition:
tuition *= tuitionInc # calculates the rising cost of tuition.
if newBalance < tuition:
print newBalance + interest
newBalance = principal
print principal," is the new balance. "
interest = principal * interestRate
print interest," is the new interest on the principal. "
balance = principal + interest
print balance,"is the new principal. "
tuition *= tuitionInc # calculates the rising cost of tuition.
print tuition," is the new cost of tuition. "
principal = newBalance - tuition
print principal," is the new balance. "
interest = principal * interestRate
print interest," is the new interest on the principal. "
balance = principal + interest
print balance, "is the new principal. "
count = count + 1
if tuition > principal:
print principal + interest, "was available for the last student."
if count > 10:
print count, "Students used this grant."
--
Bob Gailer
Chapel Hill NC
919-636-4239
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