The population of mastertown was 23,000 in 2012. assume that mastertowns population increases at a rate of 2% per year. write an equation to model the population of mastertown (y) based on numbers of years since 2012 (x)

So, after one year will will have the new population of 23 000 * (100 %+2%)
(the 100 % is the old population and the 2% is the increase), that is:

23000*1.02=23460

(102 % can be represented as 1.02)

And for the next years, we have to repeat the procedure.

a more generic rule would be:

y=23000* (x is the number of years passed)