Final answer:
Salma will need approximately 2.391 years to have enough money for her project.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate how long it will take for Salma to have enough money for her project, we need to use the compound interest formula:
Where:
A is the future amount of money
P is the initial amount of money
r is the interest rate (as a decimal)
n is the number of times interest is compounded per year
t is the number of years
In this scenario, P = $5000, r = 8.6% (or 0.086 as a decimal), n = 2 (since interest is compounded semiannually), and we need to solve for t.
Plugging in the values, we have:
$7945 = $5000(1 + 0.086/2)^(2t)
By solving this equation for t, we find that it will take Salma approximately 2.391 years to have enough money for her project.