A town has a population of 20000 and grows at 3.5% every year. To the nearest tenth of a year, how long will it be until the population will reach 35300?

16.5 years

Step-by-step explanation:

The exponential growth model usually applied to interest is also useful in this type of problem.  Here,

initial population:  20,000

final population:    35,300

Annual interest rate:  3.5% <=> 0.035

Then A = P(1 + r)^t becomes

ln A = ln P + t*ln 1.035, so that

      ln A - ln P         0.5682

t = = =  16.5 years

        ln 1.035           0.0344

sadsdda

step-by-step explanation: