Part a)
Price of car is $32,000 and the value of Car is depreciating at a rate of 8.5% per year. This means the worth of car is decreasing. Hence it is a decay.
Part b)
Worth of car in 5 years.
Current Price = P = $32000
Decay rate = r = 0.085
Time = t = 5 years
Formula to be used:
[tex]A=P(1-r)^{t} \\ \\
A=32000(1-0.085)^{5} \\ \\
A=20523.69 [/tex]
This means, the worth of car after 5 years will be reduced to $20,523.69
Part c)
When the car will be worth half of its original amount.
Half amount = $16,000
Using the values in above formula, we get
[tex]16000=32000(1-0.085)t^{2} \\ \\
0.5=(0.915)^{t} \\ \\
t=7.8 [/tex]
This means, after 7.8 years the car be worth half of what Carson paid