Question

the population of mastertown was 23,000 in 2012. assume that mastertowns population increases at a rate of 2% per year. write an equation to model the population of mastertown (y) based on numbers of years since 2012 (x)

Answer 1

So, after one year will will have the new population of 23 000 * (100 %+2%)
(the 100 % is the old population and the 2% is the increase), that is:

23000*1.02=23460

(102 % can be represented as 1.02)

And for the next years, we have to repeat the procedure.

a more generic rule would be:

y=23000*$1.02^{x}$ (x is the number of years passed)