Down to Business - Rewriting Formulas

"Students often do not see the point in solving formulas for a particular variable when there are no values given. This lab is not designed to teach how to solve literal equations, but rather to give students an understanding of why one might need to do so.

This lab has students substitute values into the basic interest formula and then solve for the missing value. After solving several problems in this form, they solve the formula for that variable and then evaluate it by substituting in the given information. Students discover for themselves that it is sometimes better to solve for the variable first and then input the values when solving several problems for the same variable."