Untitled
One tricky part is RATE involves zero-finding with an initial guess. The syntax is:
RATE(nper, pmt, pv, [fv], [type], [guess])
Sometimes there are multiple zeros. When doing parity testing with Excel and Google Sheets, I found many cases where Sheets and Excel find different zeros, so their internal solver algorithm must be different in some cases.
My initial solution tended to match Sheets when they differed, so I assume I and the Google engineers both came up with similar simple implementations. Who knows what the Excel algorithm is doing.
Of course, almost all these edge cases are for extremely weird unrealistic inputs.
Discussion Activity
Light discussionFirst comment
39m
Peak period
1
Day 1
Avg / period
1
Based on 1 loaded comments
Key moments
- 01Story posted
Nov 10, 2025 at 10:04 AM EST
15 days ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Nov 10, 2025 at 10:43 AM EST
39m after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
1 comments in Day 1
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Nov 10, 2025 at 10:43 AM EST
15 days ago
Step 04
Generating AI Summary...
Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns
Discussion hasn't started yet.
Want the full context?
Jump to the original sources
Read the primary article or dive into the live Hacker News thread when you're ready.