Question

The library at a certain university reported that journal prices had increased by 170% over a period of 10 years. The report concluded that this represented a price increase of 17% each year. If journal prices had indeed increased by 17% each year, what percentage increase would that give over 10 years?

Answer 1

Let's call p the starting price. If it increases 17% each year, then, 1.17 would represent such an increase. Then, we elevate that expression to the tenth power because the period of time is 10 years.

`1.17^(10)p=4.807p`

Then, we multiply the coefficient by 100 to express it as a percentage.

`4.807*100=480.7`

Therefore, the percentage increase is 480.7%.