A large pharmaceutical company uses the function f(x)=1.548x-2958 to model the amount of money, in billions of dollars, it spends each year on research and development, where x corresponds to the year. Use the function to predict the amount of money it will spend in 2021
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To find the amount of money the company will spend in 2021, we need to substitute 2021 for x in the function f(x) and solve for the value.
f(x) = 1.548x - 2958
Substituting x = 2021:
f(2021) = 1.548(2021) - 2958
f(2021) = 3130.908 - 2958
f(2021) = 172.908
Therefore, the company is predicted to spend approximately $172.908 billion in research and development in 2021.