6.10: Credit Cards
- Apply for a credit card armed with basic knowledge.
- Distinguish between three basic types of credit cards.
- Compare and contrast the benefits and drawbacks of credit cards.
- Read and understand the basic parts of a credit card statement.
- Compute interest, balance due, and minimum payment due for a credit card.
It can be difficult to get along these days without at least one credit card. Most hotels and rental car agencies require that a credit card is used. There are even a number of retailers and restaurants that no longer accept cash. They make online purchasing easier. And nothing contributes more to a good credit rating than a solid history of making credit card payments on time.
Being granted a credits card is a privilege. Used unwisely that privilege can become a curse and the privilege may be withdrawn. In this section, we will talk about the different types of credit cards and their advantages and disadvantages. The more knowledge a cardholder has about the credit card industry, the better able credit accounts can be managed, and that knowledge may cause major adjustments to a cardholder’s lifestyle.
All credit cards are not equal, but they all represent consumers borrowing money, usually from a bank, to pay for needs and “wants.” As such, they are a type of loan, and your repayment may include interest. (You might want to review Section 6.8, which discusses loans and repayment plans.)
There are many institutions and credit cards to choose from. Use caution as you shop around for a credit card that suits you. Your top concern is likely the interest rates on purchases and cash advances. But be careful to also read the small print regarding charges for late payments, and other fees such as an annual fee, where the credit card charges you (the cardholder) a fee each year for the privilege of using the cards. Many cards charge no such fee, but there are many that charge modest to heavy fees. Make sure to understand rules for reward programs , where the credit card issuer grants benefits based on one’s spending. Finally, once one applies for and is granted a credit card, pay attention to the credit limit the bank offers. Once a company is owed that much money, use of the card for purchases should be curtailed until some of the debt is paid off.
The interest rate will not matter if the balance is paid every month. When the balance is paid every month, there is NO INTEREST charged.
Types of Credit Cards
There are basically three types of credit cards: bank-issued credit cards, store-issued credit cards, and travel/entertainment credit cards. We will look at all three and explain the good and the bad qualities of each.
Bank-Issued Credit Cards
Perhaps the most widely used credit card type is the bank-issued credit card , like Visa or MasterCard (and even American Express and Discover cards). These types of cards are an example of revolving credit, meaning that additional credit is extended before the previous balance is paid—but only up to the assigned credit limit. Bank-issued cards are considered the most convenient, as they can be used to purchase anything, including apparel, furniture, groceries, fuel for automobiles, meals, hotel bills, and so on, just as if paying with cash. The interest rates on bank-issued credit cards are usually lower than those for other credit cards we’ll discuss, and the credit limits are generally higher. Currently, bank-issued cards have an average 20.09% APR.
Store-Issued Credit Cards
Store-issued credit cards are issued by retailers. One can hardly walk into a store these days without being offered a discount on purchases if one applies for the store credit card. These cards can only be used in that store or family of stores that issues the card. However, if a store credit card is associated with Visa, MasterCard, or American Express, then the card might be used the same way that the bank-issued cards are used. This is called cobranding. The logo of the bank-issued card will be present on the store card. Many stores offer both types. Like other credit cards, they may come with an annual fee.
Store credit cards usually charge higher interest rates than bank-issued cards. Currently, store credit cards have an APR (annual percentage rate) of 24.15%. Any rewards offered by store credit cards are usually limited to purchases made in their own store, and it typically takes longer to accumulate enough rewards or points to redeem them, whereas cobranded credit cards offer opportunities to earn rewards on all purchases, regardless of whether purchases are made in the issuing store or not.
Store credit cards usually offer lower credit limits, at least in the beginning. After being proved to be a responsible credit card owner, credit limits can be raised. Nevertheless, store credit cards are a good choice for those new to the credit card industry. If on-time payments are consistently made, it is an excellent way to get started building a credit history.
Travel/Entertainment Cards, or Charge Cards
This is the third type of credit card. The travel and entertainment cards, also known as charge cards, first and foremost offer very high limits or unlimited credit, but they must be paid in full every month. They generally charge high annual fees and impose expensive penalties should a payment be late. On the other hand, they typically have longer grace periods and offer many and various kinds of rewards.
Check out this nerdwallet article about the differences between a charge card and a credit card.
An interest rate will greatly depend on credit score. Responsible use of credit cards will increase a credit score. See the WHO KNEW? from The Basics of Loans .
Choosing a Credit Card
At one time, Diner’s Club was the premier entertainment card. To be accepted into the Diner’s Club and be rewarded with a charge card meant one was special. Today, an American Express card is held with the same reverence as Diner’s Club was in the past. It was a privilege to own one of these cards. There is a lot of competition going on to supplant Diner’s Club, as shown by the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card’s travel rewards and benefits.
Another thing worth mentioning here and something that appears to be an unusual offering is part of the American Express Gold and higher-level cards. Cardholders can actually open a savings account, buy a CD, or apply for a personal or business loan from American Express. The company boasts a higher interest rate than what is paid on traditional savings accounts and CDs.
- Which type of credit card is paid off every month so has no interest to be paid, but comes with high fees?
- Which type of credit cards are the most widely accepted?
- Which type of credit cards are the most limited?
- Answer
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- Charge cards are to be paid off completely each month.
- Bank-issued credit cards are the most flexible to use, because they are not limited to which retailers or service providers accept them.
- Store issues credit cards are the most limited, since they only work in that family of stores.
Which type of credit card typically have the highest interest rates?
What should be considered other than interest rate when selecting a card?
Which type of cards typically have high annual fees?
Credit Card Statements
Cardholders usually receive monthly statements and have 21 days to pay the minimum amount due. The statements itemize and summarize activity on the credit card for that statement’s billing period . The billing period for a credit card is generally a month long, but typically does not start and end on the first and last days of the month. The statement will include the current balance, interest rate, the minimum payment due, and the due date. Be aware, different companies produce statements that are laid out differently. The information will be clearly labeled though.
The due date is a top concern. Missing a due date is one of the worst things a cardholder can do financially, and this is by far the biggest downfall of owning a credit card. Not only is the cardholder subject to late fees, but when a payment is late more than once there is a high probability that the cardholder will be negatively reported to the credit bureaus, which can quickly erode a credit score. Figure 6.25 shows an excerpt from an actual statement from a Chase Bank Visa card, based on the current $668.25 balance.
Specifically pay attention to the late payment penalty and minimum payment warning statements. stating that if no other purchases are made and you continue making only the minimum payment, it will take 19 months to pay off the balance and you will pay $754.00. You can’t say you were not warned.
It is critical that you examine your statement every month because it is always a possibility that your account may have been compromised. If you should notice fraudulent charges on your statement, notifying the credit card company is often enough to have those charges researched by the company and removed. The card with the fraudulent charges will be canceled and a new card with a new account number will be sent to you.
On the credit card statement Figure 6.26, identify
- The balance due
- The minimum required payment
- The length of time it takes to pay off the balance by paying the minimum payments and without charging more to the card
- The interest rate for purchases
- Answer
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- The balance due is under the payment information heading and is $3,663.23.
- The minimum payment due is also under the payment information heading, and is $36.63.
- The time to pay off the balance using only minimum payments is below the payment information, and says it takes 2 years and 4 months to pay off the balance.
- The interest rate for purchases is toward the bottom of the statement. It is 19.99%.
Referring to the statement above, answer the following:
What is the statement period?
What is the credit limit?
How much in fees were charged?
Reading Credit Card Statements
Compute Interest, Balance Due, and Minimum Payment Due for a Credit Card
Computing all of these values depends on understanding and computing the average daily balance on a credit card. Once that is known, the interest, balance due, and minimum payment can be found.
Above all else, if you pay off the entire balance each month, interest is not charged.
Average Daily Balance
Most credit card companies compute interest using the average daily balance method.
To find the average daily balance on your credit card, determine the balance on the card each day of the billing period (often that month), and take the average. One process to find that average daily balance follows these steps:
- Start with a list of transactions with their dates and amounts.
- For each day that had transactions, find the total of the transactions for the day. Expenditures are treated as positive values, payments are treated as negative values.
- Create a table containing each day with a different balance. The balance is the previous balance plus the day’s total transactions.
- Add a column for the number of days those balances until the balance changed.
- Add a column that contains the balances multiplied by the number of days until the balance changed.
- Find the sum of that last column.
- Divide the sum by the number of days in the billing period (often the number of days in the month). This is the average daily balance.
The billing cycle goes from May 1 to May 31. The balance at the start of the billing cycle is $450.21. The list of transactions on the card is below.
| Date | Activity | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1-May | Billing Date Balance | $450.21 |
| 10-May | Payment | $120.00 |
| 15-May | Groceries | $83.43 |
| 26-May | Auto Parts | $45.12 |
| 26-May | Restaurant | $85.34 |
| 30-May | Shoes | $98.23 |
Find the average daily balance for the credit card during the month of May.
- Answer
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To find the average daily balance, we use the following steps.
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Start with a list of transactions with their dates and amounts.
This list is provided. -
For each day that had transactions, find the total of the transactions for the day.
The only day with more than one transaction was May 26. The sum of those transactions is $130.46. Treating the payment as a negative value, the daily transaction amounts areDate Amount 1-May $450.21 10-May -$120.00 15-May $83.43 26-May $130.46 30-May $98.23 -
Create a table containing each day with a different balance.
The new table with dates that had different balances is below.Date Balance 1-May $450.21 10-May $330.21 15-May $413.64 26-May $544.10 30-May $642.33 -
Now, add a column for the number of days those balances until the balance changed. The days until the balance changes is found by finding the difference in the dates. For instance, from May 15 to May 26 was 11. Adding that column to the table we have
The last entry was 2 since there are 31 days in May.Date Balance Days Until Balance Changes 1-May $450.21 9 10-May $330.21 5 15-May $413.64 11 26-May $544.10 4 30-May $642.33 2 -
Add a column that contains the balances multiplied by the number of days until the balance changed. We create the column and multiply the values.
Date Balance Days Until Balance Changes Balance Times Days 1-May $450.21 9 $4,051.89 10-May $330.21 5 $1,651.05 15-May $413.64 11 $4,550.04 26-May $544.10 4 $2,176.40 30-May $642.33 2 $1,284.66 - Find the sum of that last column. Adding that last column we have a sum of $13,714.04.
- There are 31 days in May, so divide the sum by 31, which gives an average of $442.39, which is the average daily balance.
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Start with a list of transactions with their dates and amounts.
The billing cycle goes from June 1 to June 30. The previous month’s balance is $563.80. The transactions are in the table below.
| Date | Activity | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1-Jun | Balance | $563.80 |
| 2-Jun | Gasoline | $47.50 |
| 2-Jun | Groceries | $63.42 |
| 15-Jun | Movie | $38.75 |
| 15-Jun | Payment | $250.00 |
| 27-Jun | Pharmacy | $31.21 |
| 28-Jun | Auto fuel | $48.00 |
Find the average daily balance for this credit card.
Calculating the Interest for a Credit Card
The interest charged for a credit card is based on the daily interest rate of the card, the number of days in the billing cycle, and the average daily balance on the card.
The interest charge, , for a credit card during a billing cycle is , where ADB is the average daily balance, is the annual percentage rate, and is the number of days in the billing cycle. As before, interest is rounded up to the next penny.
Compute the interest charged for the credit card based on the given average daily balance (ABD), annual interest rate, and number of days in the billing cycle.
- ADB = $2,765.00, annual interest rate 13.99%, billing cycle of 30 days
- ADB = $789.30, annual interest rate 17.99%, billing cycle of 31 days
- ADB = $1,037.85, annual interest rate 11.99%, billing cycle of 28 days
- Answer
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- Substituting $2,765.00 for ADB, 0.1399 for and 30 for and calculating, we find the interest charge to be .
- Substituting $789.30 for ADB, 0.1799 for and 31 for and calculating, we find the interest charge to be .
- Substituting $1,037.85 for ADB, 0.1199 for and 28 for and calculating, we find the interest charge to be .
Compute the interest charged for the credit card based on the given average daily balance (ABD), annual interest rate, and number of days in the billing cycle.
ADB = $2,135.00, annual interest rate 12.9%, billing cycle of 30 days
ADB = $1,589.63, annual interest rate 9.99%, billing cycle of 31 days
ADB = $6,803.41, annual interest rate 14.9%, billing cycle of 28 days
The interest you pay is not the only way a credit card company generates revenue. It also charges fees to the retailers, online stores, and service providers that allow the consumer, you, to use your credit card to pay them. These are called processing fees. Currently they typically range from 2.87% to 4.35% of each transaction. That means if you use your credit card at a store and spend $100.00, the store will have to pay the credit card company somewhere between $2.87 and $4.35.
One type of processing fee is the interchange fee. Mastercard charges the vendor 1.35% of the sale, plus an additional percentage up to 3.25%, and a fixed $001 fee for each transaction.
Added to that is an assessment fee. This fee is 0.14% for Visa cards.
Calculating the Balance of a Credit Card
The balance, or sometimes balance due, on a credit card is the previous balance, plus all expenses, minus all payments and credits, plus the interest on the card. As stated before, if the card was paid off, there is no interest to be paid.
Find the balance on the credit card with the given interest charge and balance before interest was charged. The cards were not paid off previously.
- Balance before interest is $708.50, interest charge is $8.15
- Balance before interest is $1,395.10, interest charge is $21.32
- Answer
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- Adding the balance before interest to the interest charge, we find the balance to be $716.65.
- Adding the balance before interest to the interest charge, we find the balance to be $1,416.42.
Find the balance on the credit card with the given interest charge and balance before interest was charged. The cards were not paid off previously.
Balance before interest is $560.00, interest charge is $6.44
Balance before interest is $3,218.00, interest charge is $49.17
The next example puts all those steps together.
Kaylen’s credit card charges 16.9% annual interest. His current billing period is from November 1 to November 30. The balance on November 1 was $1,845.23. Use Kaylen’s following transactions to determine his balance due at the end of the billing cycle.
| Date | Activity | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1-Nov | Billing Date Balance | $1,845.23 |
| 3-Nov | Groceries | $78.50 |
| 4-Nov | Tablet | $159.00 |
| 4-Nov | Online Game Purchase | $39.99 |
| 4-Nov | Restaurant | $47.10 |
| 10-Nov | Payment | $300.00 |
| 13-Nov | Gasoline | $58.75 |
| 13-Nov | Clothing | $135.00 |
| 18-Nov | Gift | $30.00 |
| 18-Nov | Restaurant | $21.75 |
| 28-Nov | Gasoline | $43.79 |
- Answer
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The first step is to find Kaylen’s average daily balance. To find the average daily balance, we use the following steps.
-
Start with a list of transactions with their dates and amounts.
This list is provided. -
For each day that had transactions, find the total of the transactions for the day. The days with more than one transaction were Nov. 4, Nov. 13, and Nov. 18. Treating the payment on November 10 as a negative value, the daily transaction amounts are
Date Amount 1-Nov $1,845.23 3-Nov $78.50 4-Nov $246.09 10-Nov -$300.00 13-Nov $193.75 18-Nov $51.75 28-Nov $43.79 -
Create a table containing each day with a different balance. The new table with dates that had different balances is below.
Date Balance 1-Nov $1,845.23 3-Nov $1,923.73 4-Nov $2,169.82 10-Nov $1,869.82 13-Nov $2,063.57 18-Nov $2,115.32 28-Nov $2,159.11 -
Now, add a column for the number of days those balances until the balance changed. The days until the balance changes is found by finding the difference in the dates. For instance, from May 15 to May 26 was 11. Adding that column to the table we have
The last entry was 3 since there are 30 days in November (the 28th, 29th, and 30th).Date Balance Days Until Balance Changes 1-Nov $1,845.23 2 3-Nov $1,923.73 1 4-Nov $2,169.82 6 10-Nov $1,869.82 3 13-Nov $2,063.57 5 18-Nov $2,115.32 10 28-Nov $2,159.11 3 -
Add a column that contains the balances multiplied by the number of days until the balance changed. We create the column and multiply the values.
Date Balance Days Until Balance Changes Balance Times Days 1-Nov $1,845.23 2 $3,690.46 3-Nov $1,923.73 1 $1,923.73 4-Nov $2,169.82 6 $13,018.92 10-Nov $1,869.82 3 $5,609.46 13-Nov $2,063.57 5 $10,317.85 18-Nov $2,115.32 10 $21,153.20 28-Nov $2,159.11 3 $6,477.33 - Find the sum of that last column. Adding that last column we have a sum of $62,190.95.
- There are 30 days in November, so divide the sum by 30, which gives an average of $2,073.03, which is the average daily balance.
With the average daily balance, we can determine the interest that is charged for November. Substituting ADB = $2,073.03, = 0.169, and = 30 into the formula and calculating, we find the interest to be .
This interest is added to the final balance from the table in step 3, $2,159.11, which yields a balance due of $2,101.83. -
Start with a list of transactions with their dates and amounts.
Angel’s credit card charges 16.9% annual interest. His current billing period is from August 1 to August 31. The balance on August 1 was $982.45. Use Angel’s following transactions to determine his balance due at the end of the billing cycle.
| Date | Activity | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1-Aug | Billing Date Balance | $982.45 |
| 5-Aug | Food | $125.31 |
| 13-Aug | Payment | $500.00 |
| 14-Aug | Gasoline | $51.65 |
| 14-Aug | Pizza | $36.99 |
| 14-Aug | Shoes | $89.45 |
| 19-Aug | Electric bill | $178.34 |
| 21-Aug | Internet | $36.99 |
| 21-Aug | Food | $93.45 |
| 30-Aug | Gasoline | $43.18 |
Minimum Payment Due
The minimum payment due is the smallest required amount to be paid on a credit card to avoid late fees and penalties, such as an increased interest rate. The calculations for this may differ from card to card. They also depend in the balance of the credit card. General guidelines for minimum payment due are:
- For larger balances (usually over $1,000), the minimum payment will be some percentage of the balance due.
- For moderate balances (between $25 and $1,000), the minimum would be a specified dollar amount. $25 seems to be a common value.
- If the balance is small (under $25 for instance), then the minimum payment is the balance.
Those are just guidelines. Individual cards may vary in these values.
Minimum payments should only be paid if money is short in a given month. The length of time to pay off a credit card using minimum payments is quite long, and results in paying a lot of interest. It is strongly discouraged.
The FYA credit card company has the following minimum payment policy. For balances over $1,000, the minimum payment is 2.5% of the balance due plus fees, but not interest. For balances between $500.00 and $999.99, the minimum payment is $50.00. For balances $499.99 and under, the minimum payment is $25.00 or the balance due, whichever is smaller.
In the following, calculate the minimum payment due given the credit card minimum payment policy, the balance due and fees charged.
- Balance due is $1,309.00, no fees
- Balance due is $265.50, $35 in fees
- Balance due is $784.90, no fees
- Answer
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- The balance is over $1,000, so the minimum payment is 2.5% of the balance due plus fees. 2.5% of the balance due is . Since there are no fees, the minimum payment due is $32.73.
- The balance is under $499.99, so the minimum payment due is $25.00.
- The balance is between $500.00 and $999.00, so the minimum payment due is $50.00.
The CLH credit card company has the following minimum payment policy. For balances over $1,000, the minimum payment is 1% of the balance due plus interest and fees. For balances between $25.00 and $999.99, the minimum payment is $25.00 plus any fees. For balances under $25.00, the minimum payment is the balance due plus any fees.
In the following, calculate the minimum payment due given the credit card minimum payment policy, the balance due and fees charged.
Balance due is $2,308.00, billing cycle interest is $24.39, no fees
Balance due is $265.50, $59.00 in fees
Balance due is $19.90, no fees
Check out this nerdwallet article about minimum payments for more!
Check Your Understanding
- What are the three main types of credit cards?
- Which type of credit card typically has the highest interest rate?
- Name three important pieces of information that are included in a credit card statement.
- A credit card has an average daily balance of $1,428.50 during a 31-day billing cycle. Find the interest if the interest rate is 15.9%.
- The billing cycle goes from June 15 to July 14, or 30 days. The balance at the start of the billing cycle is $3,825.50. The list of transactions on the card is below. Find the average daily balance.
| Date | Activity | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 15-Jun | Billing Date Balance | $3,825.50 |
| 20-Jun | Food | $125.31 |
| 20-Jun | Clothing | $345.00 |
| 29-Jun | Payment | $750.00 |
| 1-Jul | Restaurant | $94.80 |
| 6-Jul | Gasoline | $49.75 |
| 6-Jul | Home Repair Supplies | $683.94 |
| 6-Jul | Internet | $49.99 |
| 10-Jul | Cell Phone | $85.00 |
| 10-Jul | Food | $175.24 |
6. Find the balance due on a credit card statement if ADB = $487.65, the annual interest rate is 16.8%, the billing cycle was 30 days, and the balance at the end of the billing cycle, before interest is added, was $689.47.


7: Other Worlds - An Introduction to the Solar System
Surrounding the Sun is a complex system of worlds with a wide range of conditions: eight major planets, many dwarf planets, hundreds of moons, and countless smaller objects. Thanks largely to visits by spacecraft, we can now envision the members of the solar system as other worlds like our own, each with its own chemical and geological history, and unique sights that interplanetary tourists may someday visit. Some have called these past few decades the “golden age of planetary exploration,” comparable to the golden age of exploration in the fifteenth century, when great sailing ships plied Earth’s oceans and humanity became familiar with our own planet’s surface.
In this chapter, we discuss our planetary system and introduce the idea of comparative planetology—studying how the planets work by comparing them with one another. We want to get to know the planets not only for what we can learn about them, but also to see what they can tell us about the origin and evolution of the entire solar system. In the upcoming chapters, we describe the better-known members of the solar system and begin to compare them to the thousands of planets that have been discovered recently, orbiting other stars.
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- 7.2: Overview of Our Planetary System
- Our solar system currently consists of the Sun, eight planets, five dwarf planets, nearly 200 known moons, and a host of smaller objects. The planets can be divided into two groups: the inner terrestrial planets and the outer giant planets. Pluto, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake do not fit into either category; as icy dwarf planets, they exist in an ice realm on the fringes of the main planetary system. The giant planets are composed mostly of liquids and gases.
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- 7.3: Compostion and Structure of Planets
- The giant planets have dense cores roughly 10 times the mass of Earth, surrounded by layers of hydrogen and helium. The terrestrial planets consist mostly of rocks and metals. They were once molten, which allowed their structures to differentiate (that is, their denser materials sank to the center). The Moon resembles the terrestrial planets in composition, but most of the other moons—which orbit the giant planets—have larger quantities of frozen ice within them.
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- 7.4: Dating Planetary Surfaces
- The ages of the surfaces of objects in the solar system can be estimated by counting craters: on a given world, a more heavily cratered region will generally be older than one that is less cratered. We can also use samples of rocks with radioactive elements in them to obtain the time since the layer in which the rock formed last solidified. The half-life of a radioactive element is the time it takes for half the sample to decay.
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- 7.5: Origin of the Solar System
- Regularities among the planets have led astronomers to hypothesize that the Sun and the planets formed together in a giant, spinning cloud of gas and dust called the solar nebula. Astronomical observations show tantalizingly similar circumstellar disks around other stars. Within the solar nebula, material first coalesced into planetesimals; many of these gathered together to make the planets and moons. The remainder can still be seen as comets and asteroids.
Thumbnail: This picture was taken by the Curiosity Rover on Mars in 2012. The image is reconstructed digitally from 55 different images taken by a camera on the rover’s extended mast, so that the many positions of the mast (which acted like a selfie stick) are edited out. (credit: modification of work by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS).


4.3: Who Wrote the Text in Question and Why?
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All texts have authors and all texts have reasons for being written and for being read. In considering this question of who wrote the text in question and why, we encounter issues such as the spread and extent of the ability to write and read within specific societies, the role, social status, and training of scribes, and the situation of written texts at the intersection of a range of social components with potentially differing angles of engagement with specific texts. The extent and spread of writing within ancient Near Eastern societies was highly variable through time and space ( Figure 1 ). At its origins in the late 4 th millennium bc world of Uruk Mesopotamia, writing was an instrument of centralised control developed in order to facilitate temple administration of labour and agricultural production (Algaze 2008; Englund 1998; Liverani 2006). The world’s earliest writing, in the so-called proto-cuneiform tradition, was produced exclusively by and for bureaucrats working on behalf of large centralised institutions at the very origins of the state. Echoes of this role for writing are attested in outposts of Uruk control along major trade routes reaching out from Mesopotamia, as for example at Godin Tepe in central-west Iran where a small collection of clay tablets, some with seal impressions, indicate the presence of a cadre of Uruk, or Uruk-influenced, bureaucrats exercising their newly developed administrative technology in order to control local agricultural activity and production (Matthews 2013). The quantities and range of commodities attested in the Godin Tepe texts, such as small quantities of domestic animals and dairy produce, are so limited that one wonders whether their administration through written texts was not so much a bureaucratic necessity as a means of demonstrating the power of those who could write over those who could not. As Algaze points out (2008: 138), from its earliest manifestation the written text appears to align with Lévi-Strauss’ dictum that “the primary function of writing, as a means of communication, is to facilitate the enslavement of other human beings” (1964: 292).
In later times cuneiform culture expanded to incorporate a broader remit of social and economic engagement ( Figure 2 ). Writing, increasingly regularised in its execution and with a much- reduced sign repertoire, was used both in a wider array of roles — for letters, contracts, lists, treaties, prayers and annals — and also to express a diverse wealth of largely unrelated languages, including Sumerian, Akkadian (Assyrian and Babylonian), Hurrian, Hittite, Elamite, Ugaritic, and others distributed across the ancient Near East (Zimansky 2005). The extent of the ability to write and read needs investigation in each individual case through time and space. Charpin (2010: 7–24) has questioned the conventional assumption that reading and writing in Mesopotamia were solely “the business of specialists”, arguing that differing levels of competence in writing, and reading, the cuneiform script are attested by texts from a range of archaeological contexts. In the early 2 nd millennium bc there is good evidence that Assyrian merchants were capable of writing and reading by themselves, without input from specialist scribes, employing a limited syllabary of fewer than 70 signs (Charpin 2010: 19). Lion (2011) has stressed that in the same period in Assyria and Babylonia significant numbers of women as well as men could read and write.
Veldhuis (2011) has explored the versatility inherent in the cuneiform writing system, which enabled several types and degrees of literacy to co-exist. Not everyone had to be a top-level scholar, with years of expert training behind them, in order to participate in the cuneiform system. Veldhuis identifies three broad categories of cuneiform literacy – functional, technical, and scholarly. Functional literacy could be attained by a wide range of citizens of the Mesopotamian city-states, in particular during the huge expansion of the uses of writing during the early 2 nd millennium bc, the Old Babylonian period, while technical literacy relates to expertise in specialist areas of cuneiform practice, such as divination and mathematical texts. The most accomplished scribes can be described as ‘scholarly literate’, defined by Veldhuis as exhibiting “the pride of the scribes in their craft, emphasizing and even increasing complexity and demonstrating the joy of discovering rare and unusual features of the system” (Veldhuis 2011: 74). It would make an interesting exercise to track the shifting proportions of these three types of literacy through the 3000-year history of the cuneiform world and to consider their variability in the light of changing political and social regimes.
A related issue concerns societies which choose not to write. In a rare study of this question Lamberg-Karlovsky (2003) surveys through time the interaction of literate societies with non- literate societies across the ancient Near East, detecting only one example (the short-lived Proto- Elamite phenomenon) of a non-literate society adopting the practice of writing through contact with a literate society. His interpretation is that indigenous societies deliberately rejected writing because of its association with forms of externally-imposed control and with specific religious and social contexts that were alien, indeed hostile and exploitative, to non-literate societies.
How were textual traditions maintained and sustained through time and space? The transmission and control of written knowledge in the ancient Near East was materialised through two intersecting networks, forming a chrono-spatial framework. A horizontal network in space involved largely elite and merchant elements of states and empires, operating across the geographic span of specific states by means of movement of letters, contracts, and archives as well as of the writing skills and capabilities, in the form of scribes, (the website Knowledge and Power in the Neo- Assyrian Empire provides excellent coverage of these and related issues: oracc.museum. upenn.edu/saao/knpp/). But there was also a network of vertical transmission, and indeed control, of knowledge through time which was sustained and enriched by the very materiality of cuneiform culture, through not just decades or centuries but over millennia.
Archives of clay tablets appear from the very start of the cuneiform tradition and last until its end (Pedersén 1998). They served as a major means of the vertical transmission of knowledge through the curation of archives and libraries within the context of palaces and temples in imperial core cities, as attested at Nineveh and many other cities. Assurbanipal’s 7 th -century BC library of c .28,000 clay tablets (plus an unknown number of wooden texts that have not survived) constitutes vivid evidence that the king could take a personal and learned interest in the reception, definition, and transmission of knowledge through time (Frame and George 2005). At a deeper level, we can also see a role for the materiality of texts in the persistence of templates of social power, of cultic belief and practice, of knowledge control and transmission through the entire epoch of cuneiform culture.
Why do people stop writing texts? While much study has been invested in the origins of scripts and writing traditions, less attention has been devoted to what has been called “script obsolescence” (Houston et al. 2003; for numerous case-studies of the rise and demise of languages and their texts see also Baines et al. 2008; Ostler 2005). The only answer can be that people stop writing, at all or in specific ways, when the social context of their writing disappears or is transformed beyond sustainability. An illustrative example is the steady disappearance of skills in Arabic calligraphy in contemporary Lebanon, and elsewhere in the Islamic world, due to the rise of computer-generated calligraphy. Here a technological shift, embedded in social change, is transforming classical calligraphy into “a visual art rather than a useful tool” ( http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/20...30/160088.html ).


Section 4: Partial truth tables
In order to show that a sentence is a tautology, we need to show that it is 1 on every row. So we need a complete truth table. To show that a sentence is not a tautology, however, we only need one line: a line on which the sentence is 0. Therefore, in order to show that something is not a tautology, it is enough to provide a one-line partial truth table — regardless of how many sentence letters the sentence might have in it.
Consider, for example, the sentence ( \(U\) & \(T\) ) → ( \(S\) & \(W\) ). We want to show that it is not a tautology by providing a partial truth table. We fill in 0 for the entire sentence. The main connective of the sentence is a conditional. In order for the conditional to be false, the antecedent must be true (1) and the consequent must be false (0). So we fill these in on the table:
| \(S\) | \(T\) | \(U\) | \(W\) | (\(U\) & \(T\))→(\(S\) & \(W\)) |
| 1 0 0 |
In order for the (\(U\) &\(T\)) to be true, both \(U\) and \(T\) must be true.
| \(S\) | \(T\) | \(U\) | \(W\) | (\(U\) & \(T\))→(\(S\) & \(W\)) |
| 1 | 1 | 1 1 1 0 0 |
Now we just need to make (\(S\)&\(W\)) false. To do this, we need to make at least one of \(S\) and \(W\) false. We can make both \(S\) and \(W\) false if we want. All that matters is that the whole sentence turns out false on this line. Making an arbitrary decision, we finish the table in this way:
| \(S\) | \(T\) | \(U\) | \(W\) | (\(U\) & \(T\))→(\(S\) & \(W\)) |
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 |
Showing that something is a contradiction requires a complete truth table. Showing that something is not a contradiction requires only a one-line partial truth table, where the sentence is true on that one line.
A sentence is contingent if it is neither a tautology nor a contradiction. So showing that a sentence is contingent requires a two-line partial truth table: The sentence must be true on one line and false on the other. For example, we can show that the sentence above is contingent with this truth table:
| \(S\) | \(T\) | \(U\) | \(W\) | (\(U\) & \(T\))→(\(S\) & \(W\)) |
|
0 0 |
1 1 |
1 0 |
0 0 |
1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 |
Note that there are many combinations of truth values that would have made the sentence true, so there are many ways we could have written the second line.
Showing that a sentence is not contingent requires providing a complete truth table, because it requires showing that the sentence is a tautology or that it is a contradiction. If you do not know whether a particular sentence is contingent, then you do not know whether you will need a complete or partial truth table. You can always start working on a complete truth table. If you complete rows that show the sentence is contingent, then you can stop. If not, then complete the truth table. Even though two carefully selected rows will show that a contingent sentence is contingent, there is nothing wrong with filling in more rows.
Showing that two sentences are logically equivalent requires providing a complete truth table. Showing that two sentences are not logically equivalent requires only a one-line partial truth table: Make the table so that one sentence is true and the other false.
Showing that a set of sentences is consistent requires providing one row of a truth table on which all of the sentences are true. The rest of the table is irrelevant, so a one-line partial truth table will do. Showing that a set of sentences is inconsistent, on the other hand, requires a complete truth table: You must show that on every row of the table at least one of the sentences is false.
Showing that an argument is valid requires a complete truth table. Showing that an argument is invalid only requires providing a one-line truth table: If you can produce a line on which the premises are all true and the conclusion is false, then the argument is invalid.
 It depends on what you are trying to show.


1.6.3: Drug Abuse or Addiction Treatment
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Addiction is treatable and can be successfully managed, but the best is to prevent drug abuse in the first place.
As with most other chronic diseases, such as diabetes, asthma, or heart disease, treatment for drug addiction generally isn’t a cure. Because addiction is a chronic disease, people can’t simply stop using drugs for a few days and be cured. Most patients need long-term or repeated care to stop using completely and recover their lives.
People who are recovering from an addiction will be at risk for relapse for years and possibly for their whole lives. Research shows that combining addiction treatment medicines with behavioral therapy ensures the best chance of success for most patients. Treatment approaches tailored to each patient’s drug use patterns and any co-occurring medical, mental, and social problems can lead to continued recovery.
More good news is that drug use and addiction are preventable. Results from NIDA-funded research have shown that prevention programs involving families, schools, communities, and the media are effective for preventing or reducing drug use and addiction. Although personal events and cultural factors affect drug use trends, when young people view drug use as harmful, they tend to decrease their drug taking. Therefore, education and outreach are key in helping people understand the possible risks of drug use. Teachers, parents, and health care providers have crucial roles in educating young people and preventing drug use and addiction.
Addiction treatment must help the person do the following:
- Stop using drugs
- Stay drug-free
- Be productive in the family, at work, and in society
Based on scientific research since the mid-1970s, the following key principles should form the basis of any effective treatment program:
- Addiction is a complex but treatable disease that affects brain function and behavior.
- No single treatment is right for everyone.
- People need to have quick access to treatment.
- Effective treatment addresses all of the patient’s needs, not just his or her drug use.
- Staying in treatment long enough is critical.
- Counseling and other behavioral therapies are the most commonly used forms of treatment.
- Medications are often an important part of treatment, especially when combined with behavioral therapies.
- Treatment plans must be reviewed often and modified to fit the patient’s changing needs.
- Treatment should address other possible mental disorders.
- Medically assisted detoxification is only the first stage of treatment.
- Treatment doesn’t need to be voluntary to be effective.
- Drug use during treatment must be monitored continuously.
- Treatment programs should test patients for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases as well as teach them about steps they can take to reduce their risk of these illnesses.
Successful treatment has several steps:
- Detoxification (the process by which the body rids itself of a drug)
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Behavioral counseling
- Behavioral therapies help patients modify their attitudes and behaviors related to drug use and increase healthy life skills. Patients can receive treatment in many different settings with various approaches.
- Outpatient behavioral treatment includes a wide variety of programs for patients who visit a behavioral health counselor on a regular schedule. Most of the programs involve individual or group drug counseling, or both. These programs typically offer forms of behavioral therapy such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, multidimensional family therapy, and motivational incentives (contingency management). Treatment is sometimes intensive at first, where patients attend multiple outpatient sessions each week. After completing intensive treatment, patients transition to regular outpatient treatment, which meets less often and for fewer hours per week to help sustain their recovery.
- Inpatient or residential treatment can also be very effective, especially for those with more severe problems (including co-occurring disorders). Licensed residential treatment facilities offer 24-hour structured and intensive care, including safe housing and medical attention.
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Medication (for opioid, tobacco, or alcohol addiction)
- Medications help suppress withdrawal symptoms during detoxification. Detoxification is not in itself “treatment,” but only the first step in the process. Patients who do not receive any further treatment after detoxification usually resume their drug use.
- Patients can use medications to help re-establish normal brain function and decrease cravings to reduce the chances of a re-lapse. People who use more than one drug, which is very common, need treatment for all of the substances they use.
- Evaluation and treatment for co-occurring mental health issues such as depression and anxiety
- Long-term follow-up to prevent relapse


12.10: Course Contents at a Glance
The following list shows the module-level topics for the course. To see all of the course pages, visit the Table of Contents .
Module 1: Types of Statistical Studies and Producing Data
- Types of Statistical Studies
- Sampling
- Conducting Experients
Module 2: Summarizing Data Graphically and Numerically
- Categorical vs. Quantitative Data
- Dotplots
- Histograms
- Mean and Median
- Interquartile Range and Boxplots
- Standard Deviation
Module 3: Examining Relationships: Quantitative Data
- Scatterplots
- Linear Relationships
- Causation and Lurking Variables
- Linear Regression
- Assessing the Fit of a Line
Module 4: Nonlinear Models
- Exponential Relationships
Module 5: Relationships in Categorical Data with Intro to Probability
- Two-Way Table
Module 6: Probability and Probability Distributions
- Another Look at Probability
- Probability Rules
- Discrete Random Variables
- Continuous Probability Distribution
- Normal Random Variables
Module 7: Linking Probability to Statistical Inference
- Parameters vs. Statistics
- Distribution of Sample Proportions
- Statistical Inference
Module 8: Inference for One Proportion
- Estimating a Population Proportion
- Hypothesis Testing
- Hypothesis Test for a Population Proportion
Module 9: Inference for Two Proportions
- Distribution Differences in Sample Proportions
- Estimate the Difference Between Population Proportions
- Hypothesis Test for Difference in Two Population Proportions
Module 10: Inference for Means
- Distribution of Sample Means
- Estimating a Population Mean
- Hypothesis Test for a Population Mean
- Inference for a Difference in Two Population Means
- Hypothesis Test for a Difference in Two Population Means
- Estimating the Difference in Two Population Means
Module 11: Chi-Square Tests
- Goodness-of-Fit
- Test of Independence
- Test of Homogeneity
Contributors and Attributions
CC licensed content, Original
- Course Contents at a Glance. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
CC licensed content, Shared previously
- Binoculars Icon. Authored by : Musmellow. Provided by : Noun Project. Located at : https://thenounproject.com/term/binoculars/1234056/ . License : CC BY: Attribution


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affinal tie
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a contractual relationship by marriage or mutual agreement that is depicted as a double line on the kinship chart.
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ambilineal descent
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tracing an individual’s kinship through a single gendered line, with each family choosing either the mother’s or father’s descent line.
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ambilocal residence
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a postmarital residence pattern in which the couple chooses one lineage for their offspring, either the mother’s or the father’s; associated with ambilineal descent.
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avunculocal residence
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a postmarital residence pattern where a newly married couple resides with the groom’s mother’s brother; associated with patrilineal descent.
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bifurcate merging kinship
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a broader chart of EGO family relation that connects kinships by merging EGO’s parents’ same-sex siblings and their offspring into the immediate family (creating parallel cousins) and bifurcating, or cutting off, EGO’s parents’ opposite-sex siblings and their offspring (creating cross cousins); also called
Iroquois kinship
.
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bilateral descent
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tracing an individual’s kinship through both the mother’s and father’s lines.
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blended families
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a family in which there is more than one origin family for the members.
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bride service
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a transfer of wealth from the groom’s to the bride’s family through labor, usually the contracted labor of the groom, either before or after the marriage.
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bride wealth
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the transfer of material and symbolic value from the groom’s to the bride’s family in order to legitimize the marriage contract.
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clans
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a tribal social division in which a group of lineages have a presumed and symbolic kinship.
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cognatic descent
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a kinship structure that follows descent through both men and women, although it may vary by family.
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collateral kin
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EGO’s siblings and their offspring.
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compadrazgo
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a form of godparent relationship introduced originally as a social institution within the Catholic Church and later adapted as popular Catholicism in Latin America in which godparents are named for a Catholic child or young person during rituals such as baptism, confirmation, and marriage.
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consanguineal tie
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a biological (bloodline) connection between individuals that is indicated by a single line on a kinship chart; it is considered to be a permanent tie that cannot be broken.
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cross cousin
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EGO’s cousins through their parents’ opposite-sex siblings.
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descent
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individuals who are believed to be connected by blood or who have an enduring kindship bond across generations.
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dowry
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material value carried by the bride into her own marriage to provide her with symbolic leverage within her husband’s lineage.
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EGO
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the starting point for the kinship chart; used to read relationships as alignments between EGO and other individuals.
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extended family
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two or more family units functioning as a single integrated family; may involve two or more generations.
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family
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two or more people in an adaptable social and economic alliance that involves kinship, whether perceived through blood, marriage, or other permanent or semipermanent arrangement.
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family of orientation
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the family unit in which EGO was raised and nurtured as a child and adolescent.
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family of procreation
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the family that EGO produces, usually as a result of marriage.
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fictive kin
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a kinship tie that is socially interpreted to be by blood or marriage and that is based on intentional relationships, such as adoption, godparenthood, or intimate personal ties.
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fraternal polyandry
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a form of marriage in which biological brothers marry a single wife.
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generational kinship
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a kinship system in which the terms of reference are for gender and generation only, creating large units of immediate family; also called
Hawaiian kinship
.
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ghost marriage
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a marriage between one or two deceased individuals in order to create an alliance between lineages.
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household
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a group of individuals who live within the same residence and share socioeconomic needs associated with production and consumption.
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incest taboo
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a prohibition against sexual relations that is universal between parents and their offspring and sometimes extends to other relations considered too close for sexual relationships.
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kindred
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the sum of kinship relationships that is defined through EGO.
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kinship
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a web of relationships in which people consider themselves related to each other in a social and biological way.
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levirate
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a remarriage obligation in which the surviving widow (wife) must marry her deceased husband’s brother; the levirate occurred within polygynous societies.
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lineage
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a continuous line of descent from an original ancestor.
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lineal kinship
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a form of kinship reckoning that highlights the creation of a nuclear family; also called
Eskimo kinship
.
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marriage
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the formation of a new, socially sanctioned family as it is defined across cultures and societies.
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marriage compensation
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the transfer of some form of wealth from one family to another to legitimize the marriage as a creation of a new social and economic household.
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matrilineal (uterine) descent
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the descent of both males and females traced solely through the female ancestors.
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matrilocal residence
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a postmarital residence pattern in which the newly married couple establishes their new household with or near the bride’s mother or the bride’s mother’s relatives; also called
uxorilocal residence
.
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moieties
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the social division of a tribe into two halves.
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monogamy
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the formally sanctioned union of two adults.
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neolocal residence
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a postmarital residence pattern in which the newly married couple establishes an independent household not connected to either spouse’s family.
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nuclear family
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a family composed of two parents and their immediate offspring.
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parallel cousin
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EGO’s brothers and sisters through their parents’ same-sex siblings.
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patrilineal (agnatic) descent
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the descent of both males and females traced solely through male ancestors.
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patrilocal residence
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a postmarital residence pattern in which a newly married couple establishes their new household with or near the groom’s father or the groom’s father’s relatives; also called
virilocal residence
.
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polyandry
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is the marriage of one wife and more than one husband.
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polygamy
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the formally sanctioned union of more than two adults at the same time.
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polygyny
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the marriage of one man to more than one woman.
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postmarital residence rules
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the social rules that determine where a newly married couple will reside following marriage.
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remarriage obligations
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responsibilities to replace a deceased spouse with a new spouse from the same lineage in order to maintain the stability of the family unit.
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serial monogamy
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a form of monogamy in which two adults have a series of marriages over a lifetime.
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sociocultural construction
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a concept that is defined according to social criteria (not biological) and varies across cultures.
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sororate
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a remarriage obligation in which the surviving widower (husband) must marry his deceased wife’s sister or another female relative from her family.
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terms of address
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the terms (words) we use to speak directly to our kin.
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terms of reference
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the terms (words) that are used to refer to our kin.
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unilineal descent
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tracing an individual’s kinship through a single gendered line, either male or female, as a collective social rule for all families within a society.