Foreign Exchange Math Problems For Middle/High School

almost 3 years ago

Hi there. In this math post, I want to cover some basic foreign exchange math problems for middle and high school students.

I am a big believer in providing motivating examples when it comes to mathematics and the learning aspect of math. A lot of criticism towards math is wondering about applications. I do think there are not enough teachers out there that provide math examples with practical applications.

Mathematics dealing with foreign exchange do involve a fair bit of fractions and sometimes algebra.

I had a past LeoFinance post that talked about what is appreciation and depreciation. As this is a math based, I cover more calculations than definitions.

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Topics

Converting From One Currency To Another
Extension - Cryptocurrencies

Converting From One Currency To Another

Being able to convert from one currency to another is important. For those who travel to other countries goods and services are priced in the host/local currency. As an example Canadian dollars would need to be transferred to Chinese yuan if a tourist is in China buying goods and services. More reasons for reasons why people do foreign currency exchange you can read this webpage.

Example One

Julia is planning to travel from Canada to the United States. She plans to convert $1200 CAD into American dollars for some cash on hand. The exchange rate is about 1 CAD for 0.80 USD. How much would Julia's Canadian dollars be in American dollars?

Example Two

Harry travels from Canada to Malaysia. He converts $800 CAD into the Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) currency. In Malaysia, Harry spends 700 MYR on food. Assume that 1 CAD is about 3.33 MYR.

How much money does Harry have in Canadian dollars after spending on food?

Convert the 800 CAD into Malaysian Ringgit first.

From the 2664 MYR Harry spends 700 MYR on food. This is 2664 - 700 = 1964 MYR. Convert the 1964 MYR back into Canadian dollars.

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Extension - Cryptocurrencies

Teachers who teach math nowadays could provide some motivating math examples that involve Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and so on. The calculations with crypto is not much different than regular forex. It would be a good idea to keep examples as modern as possible. Many students could be motivated by practical math examples and may be influenced to try harder in math.

Example One

Patrick has $500 CAD. He wants to buy some Litecoin. If the price of a single Litecoin (LTC) at a certain point in time is $200 CAD, how much LTC can Patrick obtain?

When it comes to setting up the math equation, LTC is on the top. For each LTC 200 Canadian dollars is needed.

Example Two

Marissa has $1000 USD. She is looking to buy some Bitcoin (BTC). The price of BTC at the time is $35 000 USD. How much Bitcoin can Marissa purchase with $1000 USD?

Example Three - Selling

Robert has 300 AVA (Travala.com) tokens that he is willing to sell. The price of one AVA token is about $2.25 USD. How much are these AVA tokens worth?

Example Four

Patrick has $50 CAD. He wants to buy Dogecoin. If the price of a single Dogecoin (DOGE) at a certain point in time is 38 cents CAD, can Patrick obtain at least 125 DOGE?