Problema Solution
if a town starts with a population of 63,500 that declines by 700 people per year, construct an equation to model its population size over time. How long would it take to reduce its population by half?
Answer provided by our tutors
a linear decline of 700 people per year, let 'y' represent the years since the current year and 'P' represent the population:
P = -700y + 63500
half of the population would be 63500 / 2, so we solve for 'y' when P=63500/2
63500/2 = -700y + 63500
solving for 'y' we have y=45.35
so it will take just over 45 years (45.35) to reduce the population by half