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A new car is purchased for 
$42,000 and over time its value depreciates by one half every 3 years. What is the value of the car 10 years after it was purchased, to the nearest hundred dollars?
Answer:

A new car is purchased for $42,000 \$ 42,000 and over time its value depreciates by one half every 33 years. What is the value of the car 1010 years after it was purchased, to the nearest hundred dollars?\newlineAnswer:

Full solution

Q. A new car is purchased for $42,000 \$ 42,000 and over time its value depreciates by one half every 33 years. What is the value of the car 1010 years after it was purchased, to the nearest hundred dollars?\newlineAnswer:
  1. Initial Value and Depreciation Rate: Determine the initial value of the car and the rate of depreciation.\newlineThe initial value of the car is $42,000\$42,000, and it depreciates by half every 33 years.\newlineThis is an exponential decay problem.
  2. Find a and b: Find the values of a and b.\newlinea=$42,000a = \$42,000 (initial value of the car)\newlineb=12b = \frac{1}{2} (the car loses half its value every 33 years)
  3. Calculate Number of Halvings: Calculate xx, the number of times the car's value is halved in 1010 years.t=10t = 10 (number of years after purchase)T=3T = 3 (number of years it takes for the car's value to halve)x=tTx = \frac{t}{T}x=103x = \frac{10}{3}Since the value halves every 33 years, we need to round xx to the nearest whole number because the car can't partially halve its value.x3x \approx 3 (after 99 years, not 1010)
  4. Exponential Decay Formula: Use the exponential decay formula to calculate the car's value after 1010 years.\newlineExponential Decay: V(x)=a(b)(x)V(x) = a(b)^{(x)}\newlineWhich equation represents the exponential decay?\newlineV(x)=a(b)(x)V(x) = a(b)^{(x)}\newlineSubstitute $42,000\$42,000 for aa, 12\frac{1}{2} for bb, and 33 for xx\newlineV(x)=42000(12)3V(x) = 42000\left(\frac{1}{2}\right)^{3}
  5. Evaluate Car's Value at 99 Years: Evaluate the expression to find the car's value after 99 years (since we rounded down to 33 halvings).\newlineV(x)=42000(1/2)3V(x) = 42000(1/2)^{3}\newlineV(x)=42000×1/8V(x) = 42000 \times 1/8\newlineV(x)=5250V(x) = 5250\newlineThe value of the car after 99 years is $5,250\$5,250.
  6. Estimate Car's Value at 1010 Years: Since we calculated the value at 99 years instead of 1010, we need to estimate the value at 1010 years.\newlineWe know that the car's value is not halving between the 99th and 1010th year, so the value at 1010 years will be slightly less than $5,250\$5,250.\newlineTo estimate, we can assume a linear depreciation over the next year, which would be less than half of the yearly depreciation rate from the previous intervals.\newlineHowever, since we need to round to the nearest hundred dollars, and the value at 99 years is already a multiple of $100\$100, we can conclude that the value at 1010 years, to the nearest hundred dollars, will still be $5,200\$5,200.

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