A high school had 1200 students enrolled in 2003 and 1500 students in 2006. If the student population P; grows a linear function of time t, where t is the number of years after 2003.

Question

a. How many students will be enrolled in the school in 2010
b. Find a linear function that relates the student population to the time t.

Answer 1

This is just a linear function of the type y = mx + b
let's assume that 2000 corresponds with 0, so we have the two points:
(3,1200) and (6,1500). You want (10, ?)

slope = (1500-1200)/(6-3) = 300/3 = 100

so P = 100t + b
use the first point
1200 = 100(3) + b
b = 900

P = 100t + 900 , where P is the population and t is the year after 2000

so plug in t=10 for the other part of the question