Question

The Best Service Heating Fuel Company had 1,418 of its customers signed up to pay their bills online as of May 1, 2012, which represented an increase of 185% since May 1, 2005. Assuming that the number of sign-ups increased at the same rate each year, how many Best Service customers were signed up to pay their bills online as of May 1, 2008?

Answer 1

To find the number of Best Service customers signed up to pay their bills online as of May 1, 2008, we need to calculate the average annual growth rate from May 1, 2005 to May 1, 2012. Then we can use that growth rate to find the number of sign-ups in 2008.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the number of Best Service customers signed up to pay their bills online as of May 1, 2008, we need to determine the annual growth rate between May 1, 2005 and May 1, 2012.

Since the number of sign-ups increased by 185% over 7 years, we can calculate the average annual growth rate by dividing 185% by 7. The average annual growth rate is approximately 26.43%.

To find the number of sign-ups as of May 1, 2008, we can use the formula:

New Number of Sign-ups = Initial Number of Sign-ups * (1 + Growth Rate)^Number of Years

Plugging in the values:

New Number of Sign-ups = 1,418 * (1 + 0.2643)^3

New Number of Sign-ups ≈ 1,418 * 1.795

New Number of Sign-ups ≈ 2,543