In 1992, the moose population in a park was measured to be 3470. By 1999, the population was measured again to be 5290 If the population continues to change linearly: Find a formula for the moose population, P in terms of t the years since 1990. P(t)=square What does your model predict the moose population to be in 2003? square

## Step 1The problem involves a linear function, which can be represented in the form , where is the slope of the line and is the y-intercept.## Step 2In this case, the slope is the change in the moose population per year, which can be calculated by subtracting the population in 1992 from the population in 1999 and dividing by the number of years between these two years.### ## Step 3The y-intercept is the population at the start of the period, which is 1990 in this case. So, .## Step 4Substituting and into the equation gives us the formula for the moose population in terms of , the years since 1990.### \(P(t) = 183t + 3470\)## Step 5To predict the moose population in 2003, we substitute (since 2003 is 13 years after 1990) into the equation.### \(P(13) = 183*13 + 3470 = 6011\)