Population Growth and Decay (continued)
If you live in a town with a current population of 5,000 people and this population is increasing at a rate of 3.4% every 5 years, how many people will live in the town after 15 years?
This problem is a little different. The rate increase occurs every 5 years, not every year. This means that in the 15 years you are interested in, the increase will occur 3 times. This is why it is so important to read these problems very carefully. In this situation, when the rate is increased in some increment of time other than every year, our equation becomes A = P(r)n, where n is the time increment. In this case, n = 3.
A = 5000(1.034)3 ≈ 5,528
