Question

On average, each American uses about 330 kilograms of paper each year. Assuming this rate of consumption continues, if the U.S. population grows by 0.7%, how much will the total amount of paper consumed in the U.S. increase?

Express your answer as a percent of the total amount of paper consumed in the U.S.

Answer 1

Let x be the number of Americans, the total number of papers that is consumed is: 330x

The 0.7% increase in the number of Americans will give a population of 1.07x. Multiply this to the same rate,

(1.07x)(330) = 353.1x

The percentage is calculated below:

((353.1x - 330x) / 330x) x 100 = 7%

Answer 2

If we let x be the number of Americans at year 1, the total number of paper that will be consumed is,
330x
The following year, the 0.7% increase in the number of Americans will give a population of 1.07x. Multiplying this to the same rate,
(1.007x)(330) = 332.31x
The percentage is calculated as below,
((332.31x - 330x) / 330x) x 100% = 0.7%
Thus, the answer is 0.7%.