The starting value is 20,300, and the value is decreasing by 9.5% each year.
Because it decreases by 9.5% each year based on the previous amount, we use an exponential decay model.
A decrease by 9.5% corresponds to multiplying by 91.5% each year.
We write . We plug in 11 years for t.
$7,671.18
If we know your Pythagorean Triples we can immediately recognize that the last choice is a right triangle:
8² + 15² = 17²
If you don't know your Pythagorean Triples, it's worth learning the first few off the list because teachers use them in problems all the time. But for now let's just exhaustively check the Pythagorean Theorem for each triangle. We don't have to multiply everything out; we can analyze the common factors. If two have a common factor that the third one doesn't have, there's no way for the Pythagorean Theorem to add up.
Clearly 5²+15² is a multiple of 5 but 18² isn't so that one isn't a right triangle.
6²+12² is a multiple of 6, 16² isn't a multiple of 6, not an RT.
15²-5² is a multiple of 5, 13² isn't, no joy.
8²+15² = 64 + 225 = 289 = 17² -- that's a real right triangle, a valid Pythagorean Triple.
