Decay Factor

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In 2011, USA Today reported the following:
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Youngstown, Dayton, and Akron all suffered huge population declines from 2000 to 2010. Cleveland lost 17% of its population to fall to 396,815 - its fewest inhabitants since 1900.

a. What is the 10 year decay factor for the city of Cleveland? What does this 10 year decay factor tell you?

b. Assuming the population decayed exponentially, determine the 1 year decay factor and percent change of the city of Cleveland.

c. Write a function that gives the population of the city of Cleveland as a function of the number of years since 2010.

d. Assuming the population decayed exponentially, determine the 20 year decay factor and percent change of the city of Cleveland.

e. What does your model predict the population to be in 2015?