Unit 4

Exponential Functions

Name: __________________
Period: ___
4-1 Arithmetic Sequences

Driving Question: How can we write an explicit rule for arithmetic sequences using the common difference and
any term in the sequence?

Anchor: Mallory is training for a race. She plans to slowly increase her running during the month of July. On
July 1st, she starts by running 15 minutes and then adds 5 minutes to her run every day.

1. Mallory tries to record how much she ran every day, but she notices that she forgot to track her running
on several days. Complete her running log for the indicated days.
Date Time spent running
July 1st 15 minutes
July 2nd
July 5th
July 16th
July 30th
July 31st 165 minutes

2. Write a rule that gives the amount of time that Mallory runs on the nth day in July. Show that your rule
works.

3. What was Mallory’s average run length during the month of July? How did you figure it out?

4. How many minutes total did Mallory run in the entire month of July? Explain your strategy.

5. Mallory’s brother David also starts training on July 1st and keeps track of the number of miles he ran.
Each day he adds 0.2 miles to his run. On July 18th he runs for 7.6 miles.
a. How many miles does he run on July 19th?

b. How many miles does he run on July 22nd?

c. How many miles does he run on July 15th?

d. Write a rule that gives the number of miles David runs on the nth day of July.

6. Can you figure out how many miles David ran on any given day without knowing how many miles he
ran on July 1st? Why or why not?

A _______________ is a function from the _________ numbers to the _______ numbers.

This means that we are only able to “plug” in whole numbers (0, 1, 2, 3, …) into a sequence but we can get any
real number as the output.

As a result, when we graph a sequence, we will have points, but we cannot “connect” them together to form a
line or curve.
Example 1: Consider the sequence defined by a n=4 n−3 . Find a 1 and a 7.

In this course, we will study two important types of sequences: arithmetic sequences and geometric
sequences.

Arithmetic Sequences
Property of Successive Terms Formulas/Equations Notes

Successive terms have a common a n=a 0+ dn Arithmetic sequences behave like

difference, or constant rate of linear functions, except they are
change. or not continuous.

a n=a k + d ( n−k )
Increasing arithmetic sequences
where a 0=¿ increase equally each step. (slope
always stays the same!)
d=¿
a k =¿
Example

a n=3 n+1

Example 2: For each of the following, determine if the sequence could be arithmetic. If yes, identify the
common difference.
a) b) c) d)

Example 3: Let be an arithmetic sequence with and . Find an expression for , and use the
expression to find .
Example 4: Let be an arithmetic sequence with and . Find an expression for , and use the
expression to find .

Example 5: Several terms of the arithmetic sequence are shown above. Find an expression for and use
the expression to find .
4-2 Geometric Sequence

Driving Question: How can we write an explicit rule for geometric sequences using the common ratio and any
term in the sequence?

Anchor: There are 15 tiles on the path from Little Red Riding Hood’s house to her grandmother’s house. On the first tile,
Little Red drops 2 crumbs of bread, on the second tile, Little Red drops 6 crumbs of bread, on the third tile she drops 18
crumbs, on the 4th tile 54, and so on.

1. Describe the pattern in the number of crumbs she drops on each tile.

2. Complete the table to show the number of crumbs dropped on each of the first six tiles. Write each term using
ONLY 3’s and 2’s.
Tile Number of crumbs
1
2
3
4
5
6

3. Now can you write each term using only one 3 and one 2 (not counting exponents)? Make a new table above, to
the right of your original table.
4. How many crumbs will she drop on the 8th tile?

5. Little Red drops 1,062,882 crumbs on the 13th tile. How many will she drop on the 15th tile? How did you come
up with your answer?

6. How many crumbs will she drop on the nth tile?

7. The 7th tile marks the half-way point to grandma’s house.

a. How many crumbs does she drop on the 7th tile?

b. Kenny suggests multiplying this amount by 15 to determine the total number of crumbs dropped. Will this
strategy work? Explain why or why not.
 Geometric Sequences
Property of Successive Terms Formulas/Equations Notes
n
gn=g 0 r
Successive terms have a common Geometric sequences behave like
ratio, or constant proportional or exponential functions, except
change. gn=g k r
( n−k ) they are not continuous.

where g0=¿ Increasing geometric sequences

increase by a larger amount each
r =¿ step. (% increase always stays the
gk =¿ same!)

Example

()
n
1
gn=8
2

Example 6: For each of the following, determine if the sequence could be geometric. If yes, identify the
common ratio.

a) b) c) d)

Example 7: Let be a geometric sequence with and . Find an expression for , and use the
expression to find .
Example 8: Several terms of the geometric sequence are shown above. Find an expression for and use
the expression to find .
4-3 Change in Linear and Exponential Functions

Driving Question: How can we interpret the parameters of a linear and exponential function in context and to
describe their growth patterns?

Anchor: The greeting card selections at stores are regularly updated and new displays are set up each season.
Each style of card comes in a multi-pack with the corresponding envelopes. These packages must be opened
and then placed in the correct slot. Geri’s job is to stock greeting cards at a variety of stores.

1. Geri has already stocked 3 packages by the time her shift officially starts. Additional information about
the number of packages she has stocked at various times in her shift is given in the table.
Time (Hours) Number of packages stocked
0 3
0.5 38
1 73
1.5 108
2 143
2.5 178

a. What do you notice about the information in the table? Describe any patterns you see.

b. At what rate is Geri stocking the packages?

2. Write an equation for P(x ), the number of packages Geri will have stocked x hours after her shift
begins.

3. If Geri has to stock 150 packages of cards, how long will it take her?

4. The greeting card industry is on the decline. In 2020, Americans purchased approximately 6.5 billion
greeting cards each year. Between 2018 and 2023, this number has continued to decrease at
approximately 2.8% per year. According to this estimate, how many greeting cards were purchased in
2021?

5. What is the ratio of greeting card purchases from 2021 compared to 2020?
 6. Complete the table.
Year Annual number of greeting cards
purchased (in billions)
2018
2019
2020 6.5
2021
2022
2023

7. Is the number of greeting cards purchased annually decreasing by the same amount each year? Explain.

8. Write an equation for G(x ), the number of annual greeting cards purchased x years after 2018.

9. Compare your expressions for P(x ) and G(x ) from this activity. What makes them different? What
similarities do they have?

In the last section, we learned that arithmetic sequences behave like ___________ functions and that geometric
sequences behave like ___________________ functions.

We will look more closely at these connections today.

Arithmetic Sequences and Linear Functions

Arithmetic Sequences Linear Functions

f ( x )=b+mx
a n=a 0+ dn
Slope-Intercept Form

f ( x )= y i+ m(x −xi )
a n=a k + d ( n−k )
Point-Slope Form
 Geometric Sequences and Exponential Functions

Geometric Sequences Exponential Functions

n x x
gn=g 0 r f ( x )=a b ∨f ( x )=a r

( n−k ) (x−x i )
gn=g k r f ( x )= y i r

It is important to recognize and understand the similarities and differences between linear and exponential
functions.

Linear Functions vs. Exponential Functions

Linear Functions Exponential Functions

x
f ( x )=b+mx f ( x )=a b

Over equal-length input-value intervals, the Over equal-length input-value intervals, the
output values change at a constant rate. output values change proportionately.
The change ( b ) in y is based on
The change ( m ) in y is based on addition.
multiplication.
If you have two points, you can write the equation of a linear function, exponential
function, arithmetic sequence, or a geometric sequence.

Example 1: Selected values of several functions are given in the table below. For each table, determine if the
function could be linear, exponential, or neither. Give a reason for your answer.

a x f (x) b x g(x) c) x h(x) d) x k (x)

) )
0 7 1 0 0 1 5 80
3 5 2 1 2 2 10 40
6 3 3 4 4 4 15 20
9 1 4 9 6 8 20 10
12 −1 5 16 8 16 25 5
Example 2: A wild rumor is spreading that Mr. Song won 3rd place in the World’s Strongest Man Contest. The
number of people that have heard the rumor can be modeled using a geometric sequence, where the 43 people
had heard the rumor on day 3 and 140 people have heard the rumor on day 6. According to the model, how
many people, to the nearest whole number, have heard the rumor by day 10?

Example 3: A large theater has rows of seats where the number of seats in each row can be modeled by an
arithmetic sequence. If the fifth row has 31 seats and the eleventh row has 49 seats, determine how many seats
there are in the twenty-fifth row.

4-4 Exponential Functions

Driving Question: What scenarios depict exponential growth or decay? How can we use a fixed percentage to
determine common ratio?

Anchor: You own a tennis ball manufacturing company. An angry employee just added a bunch of BAD tennis balls to a
shipment. Your job is to figure out which tennis balls are bad. Go to student.desmos.com and type in the code to start the
activity.

1. (Slide 1) What do you think makes a tennis ball bad?

2. For slides 2-5, how did you determine if the tennis balls were good or bad?

3. (Slide 8) Once you have made a ball that would meet the regulations set by the International Tennis Federation,
fill in the table below with the bounce heights for each corresponding bounce number. Then sketch a graph of the
heights.
Bounce Height
# (ft.)
0 4
1
2
3
4
5

4. (Slide 9) Which type of function best models your tennis ball?

5. (Slide 10) Write your equation below. What do you think the values in the equation mean?

6. (Slides 11-14) Using your equation in number 5, determine which of the four balls are actually good. Explain.

7. (Slide 15) What advice can you offer another student for determining if a tennis ball is good or bad when you
know the heights of the first four bounces?

In math, we study several different types of functions. Three types of functions seem to keep showing up in
every math course from Algebra 1 to Calculus. These three families of functions are also featured
predominantly on the SAT and ACT!
2 x
Function f ( x )=2 x g ( x )=x h ( x )=2
Name Linear Quadratic Exponential
 Graph

Exponential functions are some of the most important functions in the real world. They appear in many places
including population growth, money (interest and debt), radioactive decay, spread of disease, etc… In addition,
the SAT will include several questions that require an understanding of exponential functions.

Key Characteristics of Exponential Functions

An exponential function has the general form
a represents the _______ amount.
x
f ( x )=a ( b ) , b> 0
b represents the _________ ________.
wherea andb are constants witha ≠ 0andb ≠ 1.
Exponential Growth Exponential Decay
a> 0 and b> 1 a> 0 and 0< b<1

Increasing vs. Decreasing Concave Up vs. Concave Down

Exponential functions are always increasing or Exponential functions are always concave up or
always decreasing! They will never switch from always concave down! They will never switch
one to the other, so they have no relative (local) concavity, so they have no points of inflection.
extrema.
End Behavior End Behavior Limit Statements
For exponential functions in general form, as the x x x
input values ( x ) increase/decrease without bound, lim a b =∞∨ lim a b =−∞ ∨ lim a b =0
x→ ±∞ x→ ± ∞ x →± ∞
the output values ( y ) will increase/decrease
without bound or they will approach zero.

Example 1: Write limit statements for the end behavior of the following exponential functions.

a) b) c)
Left: Left: Left:

Right: Right: Right:

Example 2: For each of the following, determine if the exponential function is increasing/decreasing and
concave up/down.

a) b) c)

Concave Up or Concave Down Concave Up or Concave Down Concave Up or Concave Down

Increasing or Decreasing Increasing or Decreasing Increasing or Decreasing

x f (x)
1 3
6 5
11 9
16 17
21 33

Example 3: Selected values of the function f are shown in the table above. Determine if f could be linear,
quadratic, exponential, or none of these.

4-5 Graphing and Manipulating Functions

Driving Question: What are the key characteristics of functions of the form y=a b x?
Anchor: We have been looking at how exponential functions grow. Today we’ll look at the graphs of these
exponential functions and use what we know about transformations to match the graphs to their equations.

1. Match graphs A-F with their equation. Then determine whether the graph is increasing or decreasing and
its concavity. Record your results in the table.
Graph Equation Increasing or Concave Up or Concave
Decreasing? Down?
A
B
C
D
E
F

2. How can you tell from an equation whether the function models exponential growth or decay?

3. One extra equation card turned up that wasn’t part of your original set! Which graph would this match
with? How do you know?

−x
y=2

4. Explain why it is possible that one graph could represent two different equations.

5. Match graphs G-L with their equation and graph behavior. Record your results in the table.
Graph Equation Increasing or Concave Up or Concave
Decreasing? Down?
G
H
I
J
K
L

6. Petra believes that graph L represents the parent function y=3 x after it has been shifted to the left one
unit. Pierre believes that graph L represents the parent function y=3 x after it has been vertically
stretched by a factor of 3. Who is correct? Give a convincing reason.

The properties of exponents that you learned in algebra can also be used to manipulate/rearrange exponential
functions into an equivalent form.

Review of Important Exponent Rules

 Product Property Power Property Negative Exponent Property

Examples:
Examples:
Examples:

These same exponent rules can be used when working with horizontal transformations of exponential functions.

Example 1: Determine the horizontal transformations of each of the following exponential functions.
a) b) c) d)

Now, let’s reexamine the exponential function from Example 1a, and see if we can use our exponent properties
to rearrange the function into an equivalent form.

We can use the Product Property (in reverse) to show that .

This means that is equivalent to writing .

When we rewrite the exponential function in this way, there is no long a horizontal translation, but now we have
a vertical dilation by a factor of .

Important Idea: Every horizontal translation of an exponential function is equivalent to a

vertical dilation of the exponential function where .

Example 2: Each of the following exponential functions has a horizontal translation. For each, write an

equivalent representation that has a vertical dilation and no horizontal translation .

a) b) c)

We can also use the Power Property of Exponents to show that every horizontal dilation of an exponential

function, , is equivalent to changing the base of the exponential function .

Example 3: Which of the following functions is an equivalent form of the function ?

(A)

(B)

(C)

(D)

Example 4: Which of the following functions is an equivalent form of the function ?

(A)

(B)

(C)

(D)
4-6 Modeling with the Natural Base “e”

Driving Question: What are the effects of compound interest quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily and continually?

Anchor: One of the primary ways we use exponential growth is in talking about financial accounts. Today we’ll
explore how your money can make more money with interest!

1. You just earned a $1000 bonus at your job. Would you rather receive all the money at the end of the year
or half the money now and half the money later? Why?

2. Consider a magical bank that offers you 100% interest at the end of the year. If you put $1000 into this
account, how much would you have after one year?

3. Instead of being paid the 100% interest in one lump sum, let’s consider what happens when we get
interest paid out multiple times in the year in smaller increments. We’ll explore interest that is earned
quarterly.
a. Will the amount of interest earned be the same each quarter? How do you know?

b. Fill in the table to see how the money in the account is changing. Show your work.

Amount % interest Amount in Amount in Amount in Amount in

invested earned account after account after account after account at
each 1st quarter 2nd quarter 3rd quarter end of year
quarter
$1000

4. How does the amount in the account after 1 year compare to your answer in question 2? Why do you
think this happens?

5. Is it even better to earn interest monthly or weekly? What about daily? Fill out the table to explore these
options.
Number of % interest
Amount Interest is Amount in account at end
pay-outs earned each
invested earned… of year
per year pay-period
$1000 Monthly
$1000 Weekly
$1000 Daily

6. a) Do you think you could triple your money if you received payments multiple times a day?

b) What is the most money you could have in your account after one year with the same initial
investment of $1000?
 Compound Interest
Compound interest is the interest on savings calculated on both the initial principal and the
accumulated interest from previous periods. "Interest on interest," or the power of compound
interest, will make a sum grow faster than simple interest, which is calculated only on the
principal amount.

( )
nt
r
P ( t ) =P0 1+
n
P0=¿initial amount invested
r =¿ interest rate (as a decimal)
n=¿ number of compounding per year
t=¿number of years
Continuous Compounding
rt
lim P0 e
n→∞
“e” is the base rate of growth for all continually growing processes.
Many contextual scenarios exhibit continuous exponential growth and are modeled with the
natural base.
kt
y=a e

Check Your Understanding

1. Estimates of the numbers (in millions) of US households with digital televisions is given by
t
D=30.92 ( 1.012 ) where t represents years after 2000.
a. Is the number of households with digital televisions increasing or decreasing between 2003 and
2007? Justify your answer.

b. What does the 30.92 represent? What does the 1.012 represent?

c. Use the model to estimate the number of US households with digital televisions in 2015.

2. On the day of a child’s birth, a deposit of $25,000 is made in a trust fund that pays 8.75% interest.
Determine the balance in this account on the child’s 25th birthday if interest is compounded weekly,
monthly, and continuously.

3. The number of bacteria in a certain population increases according to a continuous exponential growth
model at a rate of 8.1% per hour. There are 1800 bacteria at t=0 .
a. Write an equation that gives the number of bacteria after t hours.
b. Find the number of bacteria in the population after 6 hours.
4-7 Constructing Exponential Models

Driving Question: How do we construct models from an initial value and ratio or from two input-output pairs?

Anchor: Cold medication like VICKS® DayQuil™ often includes the chemical Dextromethorphan, which is a
cough suppressant. Although these medications are available over-the-counter and are generally low-risk, taking
too large of quantities can cause serious side effects.

1. Dextromethorphan has a half-life of 3 hours. This means that every 3 hours, your body will eliminate ½
of the current amount. In a 30 mL dosage of liquid DayQuil™, there are 20 milligrams of
Dextromethorphan, and after 3 hours, 10 mg would still be in your system.
a. How many mg of the drug will be in your system after 6 hours? After 9 hours?

b. How many mg of the drug will be in your system after 10 hours? How do you know?

2. Write a formula for D(t ), that gives the amount of Dextromethorphan in your system after t hours.

3. What percent of the drug remains in your body after 1 hour? What percent is eliminated?

4. Write an alternate formula for D(t ) of the form D ( t )=a bt that can also be used to model the amount of
Dextromethorphan in your system after t hours. Clearly explain what your a and b values represent in
this context.

5. Customers are instructed to use the medicine “as directed”. For adults and children 12 years and over,
this means taking 30 mL every 4 hours. Suppose you take your first 30 mL at 8 AM. Using the
recommended dose, calculate how many mg of Dextromethorphan will be in your system at various
times throughout the day.

8 AM 10 AM 12 PM 2 PM 4 PM 6 PM 8 PM

20 mg

Exponential functions model growth patterns where successive output values over equal
input intervals are proportional, using an initial value and ratio or 2 input-output pairs.

Equivalent forms can reveal different properties of the growth rate.

( )
t 1 t
ex. f ( t )=2 7 describes a quantity that doubles every 7 years whereas f ( t )= 27 =1.104 t shows
the growth factor per year (1.104) and the percentage change (10.4% each year).
 Check Your Understanding
4. An element is known to decay by 25% every 5 days. After 10 days there are 45 grams of the element
remaining.
a. How much of the element must there have been on day 0?

b. Write an equation for E(t), the number of grams remaining of the element after t days.

E ( 7)
c. Find and interpret the meaning of this value in the context of this problem.
E ( 6)

5. On the Great British Baking Show, a contestant takes their cake out of an 180˚ C oven and puts it in a
refrigerator whose temperature is set at 3˚ C. After 10 minutes, the cake has cooled to 150˚C. The
temperature of the cake, in ˚C, t minutes after it is removed from the oven can be modeled by the equation
t
C ( t )=a b +3 for some parameters a and b .
a. Find the values of a and b.

b. What will be the temperature after 45 minutes?