Here is an example of an exponential problem:
Problem: The population of a town is currently 10,000 and is growing at a rate of 5% per year.
Question 1: What will the population be in 10 years?
Solution: We can use the formula for exponential growth to find the population after 10 years:
P = P0 * (1 + r)^t
where P is the final population, P0 is the initial population, r is the growth rate (as a decimal), and t is the number of years.
Substituting the given values into the formula, we get:
P = 10,000 * (1 + 0.05)^10 P ≈ 16,386
So, the population will be approximately 16,386 in 10 years.
Question 2: How long will it take for the population to double?
Solution: We can use the same formula for exponential growth to find how long it will take for the population to double:
P = P0 * (1 + r)^t
Since we want to find when the population doubles, we can set P = 2 * P0 and solve for t:
2 * P0 = P0 * (1 + r)^t 2 = (1 + r)^t ln(2) = t * ln(1 + r) t = ln(2) / ln(1 + r)
Substituting the given value for r into this equation, we get:
t = ln(2) / ln(1 + 0.05) t ≈ 14.21
So, it will take approximately 14.21 years for the population to double.
We can also represent this information using a table and a graph:
Note: The table shows the population at different points in time and the graph shows how the population changes over time. The blue line represents the exponential growth of the population, and the red line represents when the population doubles.