SOLUTION: I'm seriously lost with this problem. If someone can show me what to do, that would be great! "The population of a mid-western city has been in decline at a constant rate starti

Question 807557: I'm seriously lost with this problem. If someone can show me what to do, that would be great!
"The population of a mid-western city has been in decline at a constant rate starting in the year 2000. The population decreased from 900,000 to 800,000 from 2005 to 2007."
1. Express the population N as a function of t the time in years.
2. What was the population in 2000 and 2003?
3. What will be the predicted population in the year 2012?
Thanks so much for your help!
Answer by josgarithmetic(39617) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
What kind of rule does the rate follow? Your given information only is two points. This is not enough information unless you also have other description information. You need to know if this would follow simple difference (and therefore a linear fit), or exponential, or some other kind. If exponential, you need either a percentage rate or a half-life.

Guessing you have a linear difference only,
900000-800000=100000.

You may have (x,y) points for y in hundred-thousands and x in year number.
These are (2005,9) and (2007,8).
For model as , .
Finding b, generally, . Pick either point to find the value for b.

The model is
Will this give you meaningful values when x is 2003, 2005, 2012?
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