The average customer for a certain utility company pays $120 per month for utilities. The company plans to decrease utility bills by 3% each year for the next five years. Which of the following can be used to determine the total amount an average customer will pay for utilities during the next five years?

Each year, the utility bill is 97% of the previous year’s bill, so successive yearly amounts are multiplied by 0.97. A sequence with a constant ratio between consecutive terms forms a geometric series. Therefore, a geometric series can be used to determine the total paid over the five years.

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