Question

The population of a certain city was 25000 in 2010 and decreased by 4% each year afterword. The population can be modeled by an exponential function of the form y= ab^x where x represents the number of years since 2010. What are the values of a and b?

Answer 1

a= initial value, 25000. b = rate of decay, (1-.04) or (.96)
a represents the initial value in exponential functions and b represents the rate of growth or decay. for decay subtract the 4% from 1 or 1-.04.