Final answer:
The price of a loaf of bread increasing by $0.25 each week can be modeled by a linear equation, while a loaf of bread costing twice as much as the week before can be modeled by an exponential equation.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine whether each scenario can be modeled by a linear or an exponential equation, we need to analyze the patterns described in the scenarios.
a. The scenario states that the price of a loaf of bread increases by $0.25 each week. This is a linear relationship because the increase is constant over time. The equation for this scenario would be y = mx + b, where y is the price of the bread, x is the number of weeks, m is the rate of increase ($0.25), and b is the initial price.
b. The scenario states that each week, a loaf of bread costs twice as much as it did the week before. This is an exponential relationship because the price is doubling each week. The equation for this scenario would be y = ab^x, where y is the price of the bread, x is the number of weeks, a is the initial price, and b is the growth factor (2 in this case).