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Films · Mathematics · Financial mathematics, part 2

Prof. Dr. Dirk Schieborn

Higher Mathematics 1 · Reutlingen University

Lecture film · Higher Mathematics 1 · Financial Mathematics, Part 2

A Schoolboy, a Tower, a Plaited Loaf: Series, Compound Interest and the Number e

Lecture film · Higher Mathematics 1 · Financial Mathematics, Part 2

A Schoolboy, a Tower, a Plaited Loaf: Series, Compound Interest and the Number e

Prof. Dr. Dirk Schieborn

Higher Mathematics 1 · Reutlingen University

The sequence is the staircase, the series the tower built from its steps, and little Gauss computes it without stacking. With compound interest money grows geometrically. Crediting interest more and more often makes you richer, but never infinitely rich: the limit is the number e.

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More films: Signature · Prof. Dr. Dirk Schieborn

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Chapter 1 · The cafeteria staircase

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A Schoolboy, a Tower, a Plaited Loaf: Series, Compound Interest and the Number e

Prof. Dr. Dirk SchiebornHigher Mathematics 1 · Reutlingen University
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NewNov 4, 2026 · 6 chapters

An explainer film in six chapters, made from a real lecture: cafeteria money as a staircase, how little Gauss adds 1 to 100 in half a minute, a company's total output as an arithmetic series, staircase and tower as sequence and series, compound interest as a plaited loaf that keeps rising in the oven, and why crediting interest more often makes you richer but never infinitely rich: the limit is the number e. Pause anywhere and ask.

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