r = your monthly interest rate... we have to convert it into decimal first... and then we have to divide it by 12(number of months in a year)... n = number of payments over loan's lifetime... we have to multiply the number of years into 12 (ex. we have to pay till 30 years so, 12*30 is equals to 360 months)... this methodology helps to get the number of months of loan paymenthave during the lifetime of loan...