Search the Internet and determine the most recent population of your home state. A good place to start is the U.S. Census Bureau (www.census.gov) which maintains all demographic information for the country. If possible, locate the annual growth rate for your state. If you can not locate this value, feel free to use the same value (0.9%) that we used in our example above.
Determine the population of your state 10 years from now.
Determine how long and in what year the population in your state may double assuming a steady annual growth rate.
Look up the population of the city in which you live. If possible, find the annual percentage growth rate of your home city (use 0.9% if you can not locate this value).
Determine the population of your city in 10 years.
Determine how long until the population of your city doubles assuming a steady growth rate.
Discuss factors that could possibly influence the growth rate of your city and state.
Do you live in a city or state that is experiencing growth?
Is it possible that you live in a city or state where the population is on the decline or hasn't changed?
How would you solve this problem if the case involved a steady decline in the population (say -0.9% annually)? Show an example.
Think of other real world applications (besides monitoring and modeling populations) where exponential equations can be utilized.