Let's choose the town of Pleasantville. Using the second column, the expression for the current estimated population of Pleasantville in terms of x is x. Using the third column, the expression for the current estimated population in terms of x is x - 0.02x = 0.98x.
1 answer
That is correct. The second column shows the population of Pleasantville as a direct function of x, meaning the population is equal to x. The third column, however, estimates the population to be 0.02x less than x, or 0.98x.