Find a Power Function That Models the Data in the Table

Multiple Choice

Find a power function that models the data in the table. Round to three decimal places if necessary.
-The table shows the population of a certain city in various years. The population of the city $\mathrm { f } ( \mathrm { x } )$ , in hundreds of thousands, can be modeled by $\mathrm { f } ( \mathrm { x } ) = \mathrm { ax } \mathrm { b }$ , where x represents the number of years since 1995 . Estimate the population of the city in the year 2021. (You will first need to use regression to estimate the values of a and b) .
$\begin{array}{l|ccccc}\text { Year } & 1996 & 2000 & 2004 & 2008 & 2012 \\\hline \text { Population (hundreds of thousands) } & 3.2 & 4.1 & 5.7 & 9.6 & 14.1\end{array}$

A) 1,177,277
B) 1,240,963
C) 1,318,550
D) 1,365,641