Solution:
To find out how much of the second payment is interest, we need to calculate the amount of principal that was paid off with the first payment and then determine the interest on the remaining balance for the next period.Given:- Principal (P) = $600,000- Annual interest rate (r) = 2.79%- Compounding frequency: semi-annually (n = 2 times a year)- Amortization period: 25 years- Monthly payment (M) = $2,776First, convert the annual interest rate to a monthly interest rate by dividing by 12. However, since it is compounded semi-annually, we would instead convert the rate to a semi-annual rate and then to an equivalent monthly rate by finding the effective monthly interest rate.The semi-annual interest rate is:$$ r_{\text{semi-annual}} = 2.79\% / 2 = 1.395\% $$Now, transform the semi-annual rate to an effective monthly rate. To do this, we use the formula for converting a nominal annual interest rate to an effective interest rate:$$ (1 + r_{\text{monthly}})^6 = 1 + r_{\text{semi-annual}} $$where $$ r_{\text{monthly}} $$ is the effective monthly interest rate and $$ r_{\text{semi-annual}} $$ is the semi-annual interest rate. Thus, we have:$$ (1 + r_{\text{monthly}})^6 = 1 + 0.01395 $$$$ (1 + r_{\text{monthly}})^6 = 1.01395 $$$$ 1 + r_{\text{monthly}} = (1.01395)^(1/6) $$$$ r_{\text{monthly}} = (1.01395)^(1/6) - 1 $$Let's calculate $$ r_{\text{monthly}} $$:$$ r_{\text{monthly}} = (1.01395)^(1/6) - 1 $$$$ r_{\text{monthly}} \approx (1.002293) - 1 $$$$ r_{\text{monthly}} \approx 0.002293 $$Now, let's determine the amount of interest in the first payment. The initial interest payment would be the total loan amount times the monthly interest rate:Interest for the first payment = $$ P \times r_{\text{monthly}} $$Interest for the first payment = $$ $600,000 \times 0.002293 $$Interest for the first payment = $$ $1,375.80 $$Now we subtract this interest from the monthly payment to find out how much principal has been paid:Principal paid in the first payment = $$ M - \text{Interest for the first payment} $$Principal paid in the first payment = $$ $2,776 - $1,375.80 $$Principal paid in the first payment = $$ $1,400.20 $$Now we need to calculate the new principal balance after the first payment:New Principal after first payment = $$ P - \text{Principal paid in the first payment} $$New Principal after first payment = $$ $600,000 - $1,400.20 $$New Principal after first payment = $$ $598,599.80 $$We now calculate the interest portion for the second payment using the new principal balance:Interest for the second payment = $$ \text{New Principal after first payment} \times r_{\text{monthly}} $$Interest for the second payment = $$ $598,599.80 \times 0.002293 $$Interest for the second payment = $$ $1,372.77 $$Therefore, the interest portion of the second payment is approximately $$ $1,372.77 $$.Looking at the provided options, the closest answer is $1,383.75, which seems to be rounded differently. It is possible that there is a slight variation due to rounding at different steps in the calculation, but based on the process followed here, the calculated interest is $$ $1,372.77 $$. Please verify this against your chosen rounding rules or calculator.