Solve the Problem $b$ So That $f ( x ) = a x ^ { b }$

Multiple Choice

Solve the problem.
-The table shows the population of a certain city in various different years. Use regression to find values for a and $b$ so that $f ( x ) = a x ^ { b }$ models this data, where $x$ represents the number of years since 1980 and $f ( x )$ is the population of the city in hundreds of thousands. Round your answers to 4 decimal places.

A) $a \approx 1.7025 , b \approx 0.5375$
B) $\mathrm { a } \approx 2.1375 , \mathrm {~b} \approx 0.4432$
C) $a \approx 2.6352 , b \approx 0.4756$
D) $\mathrm { a } \approx 1.8506 , \mathrm {~b} \approx 0.5121$