Suppose the population of a town was 40,000 on January 1, 2010 and was 50,000 on January 1, 2015. Let P(t) be the population of the town in thousands of people t years after January 1, 2010. 6 (a) Build an exponential model (in the form P(t) = a bt ) that relates P(t) and t. Round the value of b to 5 significant figures.

a= b=
6 (b) Write the exponential model in the form P(t) = a ekt. According to this model, what is the growth rate of the population? Your answer should be accurate to four significant figures, and expressed as a percentage.