Question

Ginny is studying a population of frogs. She determines that the population is decreasing at an average rate of 3% per year. When she began her study, the frog population was estimated at 1,200. Which function represents the frog population

Answer 1

Explanation:

This is exponential, of the form

`y=a(b)^x` where a is the initial amount and b is the growth/decay rate. If Ginny begins the study with 1200 frogs in the population, our a value is 1200.

If the population is decreasing 3% per year, it is decreasing 100% - 3% = 97% which, as a decimal, is .97. Our exponential function, then, is

`y=1200(.97)^x`