Question

Does the data below describe a linear,
quadratic, or exponential function?

Answer 1

Quadratic.

Explanation:

Both linear and exponential equations are monotone increasing or monotone decreasing functions.

This means that, as the input increases, the output will only increase or only decrease, but never both.

Here for our data, we can see that first we have:

x = -8

y = 13

Then x increases to x = -6, and y decreases to y = 9

Then x increases to x = -4 and y increases to y = 13

Then this function is not monotone increasing nor monotone decreasing, so the data can not describe a linear nor an exponential function.

Then the correct option is quadratic.