Cardania bought a car for $12,000 ten years ago, and it has been depreciating (decreasing in value) at a rate of 8% per year since she drove it off the showroom floor. How much is the car worth today (10 years after her purchase)?

d

step-by-step explanation:

hello and welcome!

so, when we see the words "proportional" along with a table, we need to know that we're looking numbers that divide by the same thing.

looking at this table, we simply have to do a trial and error, and divide to see which numbers have the same quotient. if you look at choice a & c, they both have equal quotients for three of the numbers, with one exception, so those can't be the answer. looking at b, there is no similarity, so that can't be it. then, we see d; if you divide all the numbers in the table, you'll see that they all divide by two, which is a proportional relationship, and our answer!

also, always remember that the x will always be the number that goes into y, and somewhere behind this table, is a formula. for this specific table, the formula would be:

since our x-value is being divided by two to get the y-value. and if they were to ask for more numbers in the series, this is the formula you would use to find them.

hello from mrbilldoesmath!

answer:   x (x+6)^2, choice b

discussion:

factor x out of the equation:

x^3 + 12x^2 + 36x = x (x^2 + 12x + 36).

note that 6+6 = 12 and 6*6 = 36 so the above factors into:

x (x+6)^2

which is choice b

you,

mrb