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I'm currently working on a problem regarding depreciation of car value.

Question goes as so:

A 2004 Mercedes costs $50,000 and the car depreciates a total of 37% in the first 5 years. Find the formula for the exponential equation and linear equation.

I know I need to use y = ab^x but I'm wondering how I find the correct percent of depreciation (1-.37)^5 doesn't seem to be correct as it depreciates 37 percent over 5 years. Do I just divide 37 by 5, or is it different.

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    $A$h, whoops. I'll type something up.2011-09-23

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Plug known values into the formula and see what it says about the unknowns: $y(0)=ab^0=50,000\quad\implies a=50,000;$ $y(5)=ab^5=(1-0.37)y(0)\quad\implies b=\sqrt[5]{0.63}=0.9117339... $ (Also, what does the question mean by "and linear equation"? Linear equation for what exactly?)

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    Well we found out the exponential depreciation, I was also required to find the linear depreciation (which was much easier). To do so, all I did was find the slope from the points and then use point-slope formula to figure out the rest :)2011-09-23