Linear growth: The function keeps growing/decreasing by the same absolute amount. If on day 0 I had 10 apples and day 1 I had 20 apples (an abaolute growth of +10) linear growth would imply that on day 2 I would have 30 apples, on day 3 I’d have 40 apples and so on.
The pattern to look for is growth by the same absolute amounts in the equal timeframes.
Exponential growth: The function grows grows (decreases) by the same relative or in other words multiplicative amount. If on day 0 I had 10 apples and day 1 I had 20 apples (a multiplicative growth of times two), exponential growth would imply that on day 2 I would have 40 apples, on day 3 I’d have 80 apples and so on.
The pattern to look for is growth by the same multiplicative amounts in the equal timeframes