Math 319
Homework 03

The point of this homework is to help you become familiar with the "technical report" format
that you will use on your projects.  The mathematics is deliberately fairly simple.

Consider this data on the US Population, from the official census:
Year	Population
1790	 3,929,214 
1800	 5,236,631 
1810	 7,239,881 
1820	 9,638,453 
1830	 12,866,020 
1840	 17,069,453 
1850	 23,191,876 
1860	 31,443,321 
1870	 38,558,371 
1880	 49,371,340 
1890	 62,979,766 
1900	 76,212,168 
1910	 92,228,496 
1920	 106,021,537 
1930	 123,202,624 
1940	 132,164,569 
1950	 151,325,798 
1960	 179,323,175 
1970	 203,211,926 
1980	 226,545,805 
1990	 248,709,873 
2000	 281,421,906 

First, create a column that computes the % change from one census to the next.
Hint, % change is newvalue/oldvalue - 1.  For example, the % change on the
1800 row is 33.274%
The % change on the 1790 row should be just left blank.



Come up with a mathematical model or two that relates the year and the % change.
Then, use your model(s) to

* "predict" what the growth rate will be after the 2010 census, then compare to the actual growth rate from the 2000 census.  The 2010 census showed a population of 308,745,538.

* predict what the growth rate will be at the next census in 2020

* predict when the growth rate will hit 0%

* report on the strength of the relationship,

* do anything else that should be standard procedure, and

* do anything else creative if you like.

Rather than submitting a spreadsheet, write up your investigation and results in the form of a small technical report, with sections like:
	Title
	Introduction
	Model
	Results
and graphs/tables as appropriate.  You may not include a spreadsheet file in your submission; instead, you should copy/paste from your spreadsheet into your report.
You do not have to do any Internet research for the introduction.

You can use
http://people.emich.edu/aross15/project-guides/sample_paper_outline.doc
as a template to get started (you may delete the Abstracts and Bibliography, etc.)

Use academic language rather than informal language; see
http://people.emich.edu/aross15/project-guides/ross-project-writing-guide.doc
for more information.

For examples of (longer) technical reports, see 
http://people.emich.edu/aross15/project-guides/guides.html