Could someone please explain how to tell the difference between Annuities and Sinking Funds and Amortization? I understand the formulas, but every time I have a question in a quiz to tell what formula to use, I can't tell exactly which ones. Sometimes I take a guess because it sounds right and get the right answer, but that's not really understanding, and I'm asking here because I check here more than I do the site for math that I go to once every few days just to do a quiz. Here's a question I got wrong on one of the quizzes with such a question. I picked D because I thought it was because there was a goal that the guy was setting, and wasn't that one of the reasons for Sinking Funds to be used? See, I'm having a hard enough trouble explaining why I exactly picked the answer. I understand to use Present Value of Annuity and Future Value of Annuity if it's just those two question, and same for Sinking Funds/Amortization, but not if I'm trying to identify. I just can't figure out the exact difference. I know there's also set standards for something to be an annuity, but it seems like all the problems with Sinking Funds/Amortization have the exact same kind of setup.
