Introduction Learn about the symbols of international currencies and compare their values to the American dollar.
Directions Read the information below and apply what you learn to answer the questions. Write your answers on a separate piece of paper, or key them into the spaces below.
Understand Exchange Rates When you travel to different countries, you usually have to change your American dollars into the local currency. One dollar is usually not equal to one unit of the local currency. For example, $1.00 (US dollar, or USD) equals approximately £ 0.6 ( Great Britain pounds, or GBP) or ¥115 (Japanese yen, or JPY).
Exchange Rates The value of the dollar (or any currency) compared to the value of another country's currency is called the exchange rate. The exchange rate for international currencies changes from day to day depending on a variety of economic factors.
To see how much a service or an item costs in a foreign currency, go online to an international currency site such as www.xe.com. On the site, you can click the link to an up-to-date exchange rate converter table, or the automatic Currency Converter, which lets you easily convert dollars.
The proper formula to convert USD into foreign currency, also used by the automatic Currency Converter, is:
Foreign Currency Exchange Rate × No. of USD = Foreign Currency
For example, if you traveled to the Philippines and wanted to exchange $100 for the equivalent amount of Philippines pesos, you would first find out the exchange rate for dollars to pesos. If the exchange rate were 55 PHP per 1 USD, you would do the following calcualation:
55 PHP × 100 USD = 5500 PHP
So, in this case, 100 dollars is worth 5500 pesos.
Find Information on a Web Site You can find a Universal Currency Converter at www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi. If this link is inactive, or if you need to find Internet sites with similar information, ask your teacher for permission to use a search engine. Here are some keywords you might use: currency exchange rates, currency converter, international currency.
Activity Questions
Textbook Resources
Unit Resources
Teacher
Student
Please read our Terms of Use and Privacy Notice before you explore our Web site. To report a technical problem with this Web site, please contact the Web Producer.