Given:
Population of a colony in 2000 = 250
Population of a colony in 2004 = 400
To find:
The average rate of change.
Solution:
Let y be the population of the colony at x year.
The population of a colony grows from 250 in the year 2000 to 400 in the year 2004. So, the two points are (2000,250) and (2004,400).
Formula for slope or average rate of change is
[tex]m=\dfrac{y_2-y_1}{x_2-x_1}[/tex]
[tex]m=\dfrac{400-250}{2004-2000}[/tex]
[tex]m=\dfrac{150}{4}[/tex]
[tex]m=37.5[/tex]
Therefore, the average rate of change of population is 37.5.
