Question

The population of Winnemucca, Nevada, can be modeled by: P =6191 (1.04)^t, where t is the number of years since 1990. What wasthe population in 1990?

Answer 1

The exponential function models the population of Winnemucca Nevada.

$P=6191(1.04)^t$

Where

t is the number of years since 1990

P is the population size at "t" years

1990 is the starting time (t=0), the population at that time is the initial value of the exponential function.

An exponential function has the following structure:

$f(x)=ab^x$

Where

x is the independent variable (time)

a is the initial value

b is the growth factor

So the initial value of the function is the value that multiplies the growth factor.

For the given function, the initial value is a=6191

So the population in 1990 was 6191