Answer
a. See table and explanations.
b. $a_n=33.87(1.01)^{n-1}$
c. $41.33$ million.
Work Step by Step
a. See table. The first column is the year, the second column is the population in millions, the third column is the ratio of a population to that of the preceding year, and the last column is the ratio rounded to two decimal places. We can see that California has a population increase that is approximately geometric with $r\approx1.01$
b. With $a_1=33.87, r=1.01$, we can write the general term as $a_n=33.87(1.01)^{n-1}$ where $n$ is the years after 1999.
c. For the year 2020, we have $n=2020-1999=21$. Thus, we have $a_{21}=33.87(1.01)^{21-1}\approx41.33$ million.
