The table gives methane gas emissions from all sources in the United States, in millions of metric tons. The quadratic model 

y = 0.0429x² - 9.73x + 606 

approximates the emissions for these years. In the model, x represents the number of years since 2008, so x = 0 represents 2008, x = 1 represents 2009, and so on.

(a) According to the model, what would emissions be in 2014? Round to the nearest tenth of a million metric tons.

(b) Find the nearest year beyond 2008 for which this model predicts that emissions will reach 500 million metric tons.

Year.......................................Millions of Metric Tons of Methane

2008..........................................................606.0

2009..........................................................596.6

2010..........................................................585.5

2011..........................................................578.4

2012..........................................................567.3