For the following exercises, consider this scenario: The population of a city increased steadily over a ten-year span. The following ordered pairs show the population and the year over the ten-year span (population, year) for specific recorded years:

(3,600, 2000); (4,000, 2001); (4,700, 2003); (6,000, 2006)

Predict when the population will hit 12,000.