Can You Help Me With Algebra

The graph shows data for the employees of a local manufacturer since 2000. Projections had originally predicted it would take twice as long to reach the same number of employees.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/62474130@N0…

1. At what rate did the number of employees change?
2. At what rate would the projected number of employees have changed?
3. How many employees was it predicted the manufacturer would have in 2006?

My answers:
1. The number of employees decreased at a rate of 50 employees per year.
2. The number of employees would have decreased at a rate of 25 employees per year
3. In 2006, six years later, there should be about 600 employees.

I'm not completely sure about answer number 3. Is that right?

You are quite correct about 1 and 2 - but 3 is tricky. The chart shows how many ACTUAL employees there were in 2006. Remember your answer to 2. The prediction would have been 750.

Your first two answers are correct; as for the third one it would be correct if the question would've asked for "how many employees the manufacturer actually had in 2006" - but that would be easy enough to just read from the graph.

The question was about the PREDICTED number, and considering that you already know the rate of decrease, i think you'll easily find the expected answer. ;-)

NO! i think you need to do this yourself in order to be able to thrive n school.