Modeling Data The table shows the net receipts and the amounts required to service the

Chapter 6, Problem 66

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Modeling Data The table shows the net receipts and the amounts required to service the national debt (interest on Treasury debt securities) of the United States from 1992 through 2001. The monetary amounts are given in billions of dollars. (Source: U.S. Office of Management and Budget) (a) Use the regression capabilities of a graphing utility to find an exponential model for the receipts and a quartic model for the amount required to service the debt. Let represent the time in years, with corresponding to 1992. (b) Use a graphing utility to plot the points corresponding to the receipts, and graph the corresponding model. Based on the model, what is the continuous rate of growth of the receipts? (c) Use a graphing utility to plot the points corresponding to the amount required to service the debt, and graph the quartic model. (d) Find a function that approximates the percent of the receipts that is required to service the national debt. Use a graphing utility to graph this function.