The general form of an exponetial function is y = abˣ, where a is the initial value (when x = 0), and b is the multiplier (the growth or decay factor). Here, we start with a population of 130,000, so our initial value a = 130,000. A growth of 3% each year represents a growth factor of 1.03, so after x years, the population y should be y = 130,000(1.03)ˣ.
