RDN's sales of cable modem in San Mateo, California, for the months of January through April were as follows: January - 50, February - 80, March - 70, and April - 60.Suppose exponential smoothing is used with a smoothing constant, alpha, of .20.If the forecast for January was 50, the forecast for May would be approximately:

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The exponential smoothing forecast formula is $ F_{t+1} = \alpha \cdot A_t + (1 - \alpha) \cdot F_t $, where $ F_{t+1} $ is the forecast for the next period, $ A_t $ is the actual sales in the current period, and $ \alpha $ is the smoothing constant. Given $ \alpha = 0.20 $ and the initial forecast for January (which is also the actual sales) as 50, we calculate as follows:1. Forecast for February: $ F_{Feb} = 0.20 \cdot 50 + 0.80 \cdot 50 = 50 $2. Actual for February is 80, so forecast for March: $ F_{Mar} = 0.20 \cdot 80 + 0.80 \cdot 50 = 56 $3. Actual for March is 70, so forecast for April: $ F_{Apr} = 0.20 \cdot 70 + 0.80 \cdot 56 = 58.8 $4. Actual for April is 60, so forecast for May: $ F_{May} = 0.20 \cdot 60 + 0.80 \cdot 58.8 = 59.04 $Rounding to the nearest whole number, the forecast for May would be approximately 59.

RDN's Sales of Cable Modem in San Mateo, California, for the Months