Question

The annual water usage in Stafford increases at a rate of 10% every year as the town gets bigger. This year, the town used 19,000 megaliters of water. In 8 years, how much water will be used annually?If necessary, round your answer to the nearest hundredth. answer; megaliters

Answer 1

This question can be answered is we used the exponential growth formula:

$y=a(1+r)^x$

where a is the initial value and r is the rate of growth. Plugging the values given in the problem we have that:

$\begin{gathered} y=19,000(1+0.1)^x \\ y=19,000(1.1)^x \end{gathered}$

Then after eight years we have:

$\begin{gathered} y=19,000(1.1)^8 \\ y=40,728.19 \end{gathered}$

Therefore after 8 years the twon will use 40,728.19 megaliters.