Question

A $20,000 business computer depreciates at a rate of 15% per year. Which of the following equations would model the value of the computer?

Answer 1

ANSWER(20000)........

Answer 2

`f(t)=20000(0.85)^t`

Explanation:

So the initial value of the business computer is $20,000. It depreciates by 15% per year. This is exponential decay. The standard function for exponential decay is:

`f(t)=P(r)^t`

Where P is the initial value, r is the rate of decay, and t is the time in years.

Since the computer decreases by 15% per year, this means that each year, the computer will be 1-15% or 85% than its previous value.

Therefore, the equation that models the value of the computer is:

`f(t)=20000(0.85)^t`