need help with this plase

Question

the population of a species increased 27.3% between 2008 and 2010. the population increased 38.5% between 2010 and 2012. by what percentage did the population increase from 2008 to 2012? round the answer to the nearest tenth of a percent

Answer 1

If P_o is the initial population, the the population after an 27.3% increase is 1.273P_o

Then, if the population increases by 38.5%, the new population is 1.385(1.273)P_o = 1.763Po

Therefore, the overall population increase is 76.3%.

Crystal.... let's look at it this way...... if the population increased by 27.3% initially, then the new population would be P_o + .273P_o which would be 1.273P_o,

In other words if you started off with P_o = 100 you would end up with the original 100 + .273(100) =

100 + 27.3 = 127.3. This would be for the period 2008-2010.

So, now you have 127.3 people and at the end of 2012, you would have 127.3 + .385(127.3) =

127.3 + 49.01 = 176.31 people (I know you can't have .31 people so round to 176 !)

But this answer is the same as 1.273(1.385)(100) = 1.76.31 from above if P_o = 100 Does that make it any more understandable?