Section 4.1 Exponential Functions
Example 4
T(q) represents the total number of Android smart phone contracts, in thousands, held
by a certain Verizon store region measured quarterly since January 1, 2010,
Interpret all of the parts of the equation
.
Interpreting this from the basic exponential form, we know that 86 is our initial value.
This means that on Jan. 1, 2010 this region had 86,000 Android smart phone contracts.
Since b = 1 + r = 1.64, we know that every quarter the number of smart phone contracts
grows by 64%. T(2) = 231.3056 means that in the 2
nd
quarter (or at the end of the
second quarter) there were approximately 231,305 Android smart phone contracts.
Finding Equations of Exponential Functions
In the previous examples, we were able to write equations for exponential functions since
we knew the initial quantity and the growth rate. If we do not know the growth rate, but
instead know only some input and output pairs of values, we can still construct an
exponential function.
Example 5
In 2002, 80 deer were reintroduced into a wildlife refuge area from which the
population had previously been hunted to elimination. By 2008, the population had
grown to 180 deer. If this population grows exponentially, find a formula for the
function.
By defining our input variable to be t, years after 2002, the information listed can be
written as two input-output pairs: (0,80) and (6,180). Notice that by choosing our input
variable to be measured as years after the first year value provided, we have effectively
“given” ourselves the initial value for the function: a = 80. This gives us an equation
of the form
.
Substituting in our second input-output pair allows us to solve for b:
Divide by 80
Take the 6
th
root of both sides.
This gives us our equation for the population:
Recall that since b = 1+r, we can interpret this to mean that the population growth rate
is r = 0.1447, and so the population is growing by about 14.47% each year.
In this example, you could also have used (9/4)^(1/6) to evaluate the 6
th
root if your
calculator doesn’t have an n
th
root button.