Banking formulae

As discussed in the chapter 1, it is useful, as a background to studies of transportation economics, to have a good understanding of the principles of engineering economy, which is extensively treated in the literature [1-4], and of basic banking (compounding) formulae. A study of the methods for handling time differences in the comparison of various project costs (including initial costs, recurring costs, etc) is essential. Every engineer who is called upon to make engineering studies involving cost analysis should be familiar with the following derivations of mathematical formulas used in converting costs that are dissimilar in time to comparable bases. Without these conversions, it would be impossible to compare costs occurring in the future with costs that occur now.