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Printjmc
prealgebra senior
Problem
Every June 1, an ecologist takes a census of the number of wrens in a state park. She noticed that the number is decreasing by each year. If this trend continues, in what year will the census show that the number of wrens is less than of what it was on June 1, 2004?
Solution
After one year, there will be left. After two years, there will be left. After three years, there will be left.
As we can see, these are just increasing powers of , the next year will not dip below , because , and . However, without calculating it exactly, you know that it will be less than , and thus, it will take 5 years - meaning that in , the total number of wrens will drop below of what it originally was.
As we can see, these are just increasing powers of , the next year will not dip below , because , and . However, without calculating it exactly, you know that it will be less than , and thus, it will take 5 years - meaning that in , the total number of wrens will drop below of what it originally was.
Final answer
2009