Question

Given the following exponential function, identify whether the change

represents growth or decay, and determine the percentage rate of increase or
decrease.
y = 540(1.04)

Answer 1

Explanation:

We can determine whether the change represents exponential growth or decay by seeing whether the number being raised to x is between 0 and 1, or greater than 1.

In the equation
`y = 540(1.04)^x`, y will increase every time that x increases, as we are multiplying by a number greater than 1 every time.

Hence, this exponential function represents exponential growth.

The percentage rate of increase for this function would be how much the y-value increases each time. Since we are multiplying by 1.04, each time the new value is 104% the original y-value. Hence, the percentage increase is 4%.