Given: The number of marriage licenses issued by Clark County, Nevada, the county where Las Vegas is located, has been decreasing since the year 2000.
Required: To determine what type of equation would best model this data.
Step-by-step explanation: The linear functions represent a straight line on the graph. The slope of such functions is the same everywhere on the line. But the points given in the table do not have the same slope between points.
Hence, the linear equation is not suitable to represent the data.
Next, the logarithmic and exponential functions increase or decrease rapidly as we move forward on the graph. But we do not see any rapid decrease in the function's value as we move forward from the year 2000.
This leaves us with the quadratic equation. A quadratic equation would be best to define the data.
Final Answer: Option C is correct.