24-4: MathXL for School: Practice and Problem-Solving... Pat 1 of 5 The number of students enrolled at a college is 17,000 and grows \( 3 \% \) each year: Complete parts (a) through (e). a) The initial amount a is \( \square \)

Did you know that the concept of exponential growth, which is used to model situations like college enrollment, dates back to the 17th century? Mathematicians like John Napier and Jacob Bernoulli were pioneers in this area, laying the groundwork for understanding how populations increase over time. Their work formed the basis for many real-world applications in finance, biology, and sociology today! To tackle this problem, you can use the formula for exponential growth: \( P(t) = P_0(1 + r)^t \), where \( P_0 \) is the initial amount (17,000), \( r \) is the growth rate (0.03 for 3%), and \( t \) is the number of years. A common mistake is not converting the percentage to a decimal before using it in calculations, which can lead to inaccurate projections!