SOLUTION: in a country the wind power capacity has grown exponentially from 4766 megawatts in 2002 to 46,911 megawatts in 2012. find the exponential growth rate k and write an equation for a

Algebra ->  Rate-of-work-word-problems -> SOLUTION: in a country the wind power capacity has grown exponentially from 4766 megawatts in 2002 to 46,911 megawatts in 2012. find the exponential growth rate k and write an equation for a      Log On


   

Question 1162868: in a country the wind power capacity has grown exponentially from 4766 megawatts in 2002 to 46,911 megawatts in 2012. find the exponential growth rate k and write an equation for an exponential function that can be used to predict the wind power in megawatts, t years after 2002. Estimate the year in which wind power capacity will reach 120,000 megawatts.
Found 2 solutions by ikleyn, solver91311:
Answer by ikleyn(52864) About Me  (Show Source):
Answer by solver91311(24713) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!


If 2002 is year 0, then 2012 is year 10.

We need a function of the form

Where is the year zero value (because ) and is the growth rate per year since 2002, and is the year since 2002.

We are given that , so



Then we are given that , so









Do the arithmetic indicated to find the approximate value of , then use that value in:



and solve for

Sometime in the first couple of weeks of February 2016.


John

My calculator said it, I believe it, that settles it