Answer:
D. 18,000(0.97)^x
First, let's look at everything we know from reading the question.
We know that y = the population
We know that x = the number of years
We know the population starts at 18,000
We know the population is decreasing at a rate of 3% each year
Since the population is decreasing by 3%, the population will be 0.97 times the previous population each year.
This is because 100 - 3 = 97
That means we can make part of the equation.
y = 18,000(0.97)
Now, do we do 0.97^x or 0.97x?
Well, if we did 0.97x, it would look something like this
If x = 2
0.97(2) = 1.94
That means that, by 2 years, the population would be increasing when it should be decreasing
Now let's try 0.97^x
if x = 2
0.97^2 = 0.9409
That makes sense because the population would be decreasing by a slightly larger amount each time.
So, our final equation is
D. 18,000(0.97)^x
