in the newspaper, mr. shields read that the poplulation of jefferson County was decreasing at a rate of 20% every year. is this exponential or linear function? why? or why not?

Exponential.

Step-by-step explanation:

The population function looks like P = Po (1 - 0.20) ^t, or Po (0.80) ^t. Because the common ratio, 0.80, is between 0 and 1, this equation is appropriate for an exponentially decreasing decreating function.