How do we know if a natural exponential function represents growth or decay?
Using the laws of exponents, we can rewrite our new model as follows, which is an exponential function with base e k . This simplification allows us to determine if the function exhibits exponential growth or decay using the following rules: if k > 0, then e k > 1, and the function exhibits exponential growth, if k < 0, then 0 < e k < 1, and the function exhibits exponential decay. ***** The next section provides problems to check your knowledge of exponential functions.
