Final answer:
The equation representing the rural town's population as a function of time since the year 2000 is P(x) = 600 + 50x, where P(x) is the population and x is the number of years since 2000.
Step-by-step explanation:
The population of a small rural town in the year 2000 was 600 and has been experiencing a growth of 50 people per year since then. To represent the town's population as a function of time, we can use the equation:
P(x) = 600 + 50x
Here, P(x) stands for the population in a particular year, 600 is the initial population in the year 2000, and 50x is the growth over the years, where x represents the number of years since 2000. For example, if x = 10 (representing the year 2010), the population would be P(10) = 600 + 50*10 = 1100.