A large pharmaceutical company uses the function f(x)=1.567x - 3034 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 2012
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To predict the amount of money the pharmaceutical company will spend in 2012, we need to substitute x = 2012 into the function f(x) and solve for the result.
f(x) = 1.567x - 3034
f(2012) = 1.567(2012) - 3034
= 3150.504 - 3034
= 116.504
Therefore, the pharmaceutical company will spend approximately $116.504 billion in 2012.