Suppose Johnny invests $41,745 into an account, which has been earning interest for many years and he now has a total of $39,974. In two or more sentences explain why a negative number would/wouldn’t be reasonable in the solution of the rate of the investment.

Answer 1

Why not?

Johnny is losing money on his investment, why not express the rate as a negative number?
Suppose the time was 5 years, then
41745(1+r)^5 = 39974
(1+r)^5 = .957484..
take 5th root
1+r = .991348..
r = -.00865