Tent cash flow designs and analysis for gradient cash flow lectures

Students learn better if fun and motivational aids are incorporated into instructional materials. This paper presents an innovative method of introducing students to the design and analysis of arithmetic gradient series cash flows in engineering economy courses. Engineering economy students are typically intimidated by arithmetic gradient series cash flows. Hence, it is beneficial to develop creative ways to make the material interesting and less formidable. Several profiles of arithmetic gradient series cash flows are presented along with techniques of deriving closed form equations for their net present values. The designs are based on classroom lecture notes of the authors and have been used extensively over several years to motivate students and ease their fear of the analysis of arithmetic gradient series cash flows. The pedagogical benefits derived from the tent models help students to have a better understanding of other cash flow profiles. The models are given interesting names such as "The Executive Tent," "Saw-Tooth Tent," "Cathedral tent," and so on. MATLAB software modules were developed for a computer implementation of the general present value equation of the Basic Tent cash flow.