How do you do this problem ?

Solve.
A small-business research project estimated that for the years 1998-2003, the total number of retail bicycle stores in a particular region would grow according to the linear equation where x is the number of years after 1998. Graph the equation and use the graph to predict the total number of retail bicycle stores in 2008.

You don't give the equation, which means that we don't know the actual growth rate. But the equation will be of the form
N = N0 + ax. In this, N0 is the number of stores in 1998, and a is the annual growth.

I lost 50 marks for 5 such questions only yesterday :(
This would be a --LOT-- easier if you gave the equation and how many stores there were in 1998 鈽?br />
Doug