What is this 1-year percent change?

Question

The following functions give the population of three towns in terms of the number of years, t, since 1995. Use this information to answer the following questions.

Let L represent the population of Linwood:
L=6800(1.15)^t

Answer 1

L(t) = 6800 (1.15)^t

 

t = years

 

By the end of any given year, the population increased by 15% above what it was at the start of the year.  That is the meaning of the 1.15 in the argument of the exponential function.