Population Biology Question

Yea.....no......

I'm only in 10th grade in Algebra 2.

Okay, then we'll just have to teach you geometric series!

You see that we start at "year 0", and at year 1, you have 100 000 dollars plus those three percents, which is in total 103 000 dollars. This can be written as 100 000 * 1.03, right?

Now, what about the next year? Well, that is 103 000 dollars plus those three percents, which is in total 106 090 dollars. That can be written as 103 000 * 1.03, right? But hey, 103 000 can be written as 100 000 * 1.03! Therefore, we can say that, on the second year, you have 100 000 * 1.03 * 1.03 dollars in the bank account. Or, to make it simpler, 100 000 * 1.03^2 dollars.

Now, this is true for all (positive) years! Therefore, you can say that "at year n, I'll have 100 000*1.03^n dollars in my bank account"

To find the answers (if you don't know log), just multiply by 1.03 until you've bypassed what you wanted. Just be sure to count all the times you've multiplied by 1.03, as I tend to forget that.

Noah