Exponential Equations 19

Question

The population of the world in 1987 was 5 billion and the relative growth rate was estimated at 2 percent per year. Assuming that the world population follows an exponential growth model, find the projected world population in 1995. Round your answer to 2 decimal places.

Your answer is____    billion people

Answer 1

Because the growth is assumed to be exponential, we use the exponential growth formula:

Y = a * b^x where Y is the future value, b is the growth factor (greater than 1 for growth) , a is the initial value (greater than 0), and x is the number of years of growth

Y = 5,000,000,000 *(1,02) ^ 8

Y = 5.86 billion (rounded to 2 decimal places)