According to data from the u. s. bureau of the census, the approximate population y (in millions) of los angeles between 1950 and 2000 is given by 649-01-04-00-00_files/i026.jpg where 0 corresponds to 1950. determine the year in which the population of los angeles reached 2.6 million.

Given that the approximate population y (in millions) of Los Angeles between 1950 and 2000 is given by

where 0 corresponds to 1950.

To determine the year in which the population of Los Angeles reached 2.6 million, we equate the given equation with 2.6 and then solve.


To eliminate the decimals, we multiply through by 10,000,000 to get


Solving the above problem will be quite dificult, but by choosing arbitrary values of x, we can see that
for x = 14:

for x = 15:


Because, the equation is negative for x = 14 and is positive for x = 15, we can see that the value of x is between 14 and 15.

From the quection, we were told that x = 0 corresponds to 1950. Thus, x = 14 will corespond to 1950 + 14 = 1964.

Therefore, the year in which the population of Los Angeles reached 2.6 million is 1964.