The general form of an exponential function is the following

we can find the values for a and b using the known values for x and y. First, notice that when x = 0, y =51, then, if we put these values on the general form, we get:

next, we have that when x = -1, y = 17. We also know now that a = 51, then, using this information, we can find the value of b:

therefore, the exponential function is y = 51(3)^x