The data from the U.S. Census Bureau for 1982−2003 shows that the surface area of the United States that is covered by rural lan
d can be modeled by the function R(x) = 0.003x3 − 0.086x2 − 1.2x + 1,417.4 where x is the number of years after 1982 and R(x) is the surface area in millions of acres. The total surface area of the United States can be modeled by the function T(x) = 0.0023x3 + 0.034x2 − 5.9x + 1,839.4 where x is the number of years after 1982 and T(x) is the surface area in millions of acres.
If we plug in 0 for x, we can receive the data for the year 1982. Doing so shows us that the Rural area was 1,417.4 million acres and the total area was 1,839.4 million acres. Therefore, we can conclude that the majority of the area of the United States was rural in 1982.
