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The following table of values gives a company's annual profits in millions of dollars. Rescale the data so that the year 2003 corresponds to [tex]$x=1$[/tex].

[tex]\[

\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|}

\hline

Year & 2003 & 2004 & 2005 & 2006 & 2007 & 2008 \\

\hline

Profits (in millions of dollars) & 31.3 & 32.7 & 31.8 & 33.7 & 35.9 & 36.1 \\

\hline

\end{tabular}

\][/tex]

Use the power function to predict the company's profits in 2010.

A. \[tex]$34.9 million

B. \$[/tex]36.6 million
C. \[tex]$36.2 million

D. \$[/tex]36.9 million
E. \$35.9 million
F. None of the above

Answer :

To solve this problem and predict the company's profits in 2010 using a power function, follow these steps:

1. Understand the Data Rescaling:
- Start by considering the given year data (2003 to 2008) and profits.
- Rescale the year data so that the year 2003 corresponds to [tex]\(x = 1\)[/tex]. This is done by subtracting 2002 from each year value. Thus, the years become [tex]\(x = 1\)[/tex] for 2003, [tex]\(x = 2\)[/tex] for 2004, and so on up to [tex]\(x = 6\)[/tex] for 2008.

2. Formulate the Problem:
- We have the following pairs: [tex]\((1, 31.3)\)[/tex], [tex]\((2, 32.7)\)[/tex], [tex]\((3, 31.8)\)[/tex], [tex]\((4, 33.7)\)[/tex], [tex]\((5, 35.9)\)[/tex], [tex]\((6, 36.1)\)[/tex].
- We are tasked with fitting a power function of the form [tex]\(P(x) = a \cdot x^b\)[/tex] to this data, where [tex]\(P(x)\)[/tex] represents the profit in millions of dollars and [tex]\(x\)[/tex] is the rescaled year value.

3. Calculate Parameters for the Power Function:
- Fit the power function to the data points to determine the parameters [tex]\(a\)[/tex] and [tex]\(b\)[/tex].
- Suppose we find coefficients [tex]\(a ≈ 30.7515\)[/tex] and [tex]\(b ≈ 0.0789\)[/tex].

4. Predict the Profit for 2010:
- In the rescaled year data, 2010 corresponds to [tex]\(x = 2010 - 2002 = 8\)[/tex].
- Substitute [tex]\(x = 8\)[/tex] into the power function: [tex]\(P(8) = a \cdot (8^b)\)[/tex].

5. Calculate the Predicted Profit:
- Using the values of [tex]\(a\)[/tex] and [tex]\(b\)[/tex] we have determined, calculate [tex]\(P(8)\)[/tex].
- This gives us a predicted profit of approximately [tex]\(36.24\)[/tex] million dollars for the year 2010.

Given the predicted value does not exactly match any of the provided options but is closest to $36.2 million, which is slightly off from the calculated prediction, leading us to choose "None of the above" as the best fitting answer from the given options.

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