Use This Information to Answer the Following Questions -Refer to the Table Above

Use this information to answer the following questions.
The following time series represent the total population of the United States,in thousands,over the last 12 years.
$$\begin{array} { | c | c | } \hline \text { Year } & \text { Population (in 000s) } \\\hline 1991 & 253,493 \\\hline 1992 & 256,894 \\\hline 1993 & 260,255 \\\hline 1994 & 263,436 \\\hline 1995 & 266,557 \\\hline 1996 & 269,667 \\\hline 1997 & 272,912 \\\hline 1998 & 276,115 \\\hline 1999 & 279,295 \\\hline 2000 & 282,434 \\\hline 2001 & 285,545 \\\hline 2002 & 288,600 \\\hline\end{array}$$
-Refer to the table above.
a.Use exponential smoothing with a smoothing constant of 0.5 to forecast the population of the United States in 2003.
b.Use exponential smoothing with a smoothing constant of 0.8 to forecast the population of the United States in 2003.
c.Which of the two methods provides a more accurate forecast based on the MAD criterion?