Question

exponential growth or decay or neither and how? The value of a car has decreased by $2,300 annually over the past 8 years.

Answer 1

The value of the car is experiencing exponential decay.

Explanation:

Exponential growth and decay refer to increases or decreases relative to the current value of a variable, rather than at a constant rate. In this case, the car’s value is decreasing by a constant amount ($2,300) each year, not a constant percentage of its current value. This type of decrease is called linear depreciation, not exponential decay. However, in common language, any decrease might be referred to as “decay”, so in that sense, you could say the car’s value is “decaying”, but it’s not “exponential decay” in the mathematical sense.