Question

the population of masterton was 23 000 in 2012. Assume that Masterton population increases at a rate of 2% per year. Write an equation to model the population of masterton (y) based on number of years since 2012(x)

Answer 1

So, after a year, the population will be

23 000*1.02 (which is 23460 people).

And after two years it will be:

23460*1.02, which is 23930 people. Another way of writing it is
23000*1.02*1.02

so we can generalize: the population of the town, y= 23 000*
`1.02 ^(x)`

where x is the number of years passed