Question

What is the parent equation for exponential growth and decay?

Answer 1

Doing so allows you to really see the growth or decay of what you're dealing with. The basic parent function of any exponential function is f(x) = bx, where b is the base. Using the x and y values from this table, you simply plot the coordinates to get the graphs.

Explanation:

Answer 2

A = P x r^t

Explanation:

A = Amount (e.g. number of organisms in population after certain period of time)

P = Principal/ Initial Value (e.g. the starting population)

r = rate as a decimal (e.g. if a population increases over certain period of time by 20%, r would equal 1.2)

t = time in whichever units you need.

Example of problem using formula:

A population of 2000 decreases by 20% every year, find the population size after 5 years.

A = ?

P = 2000

r = 0.8

t = 5

A = Pxr^t

A = 2000 x 0.8^5

A = 655.36

Hope this helped!