Models of Exponential Growth and Decay
Modeling Exponential Growth and Decay
Did you know that you can predict the temperature of a cup of hot tea after it sits for 20 minutes? In this section, you will look deeper at applications of exponential functions and the behaviors they model in the real world around us. You will further explore half-life, radioactive decay, and Newton's law of cooling.
Learning Objectives
In this section, you will:
- Model exponential growth and decay.
- Use Newton's Law of Cooling.
- Use logistic-growth models.
- Choose an appropriate model for data.
- Express an exponential model in base
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Figure 1 A nuclear research reactor inside the Neely Nuclear Research Center on the Georgia Institute of Technology campus (credit: Georgia Tech Research Institute)
We have already explored some basic applications of exponential and logarithmic functions. In this section, we explore some important applications in more depth, including radioactive isotopes and Newton's Law of Cooling.
Source: Rice University, https://openstax.org/books/college-algebra/pages/6-7-exponential-and-logarithmic-models
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