Lab 5

Lab 5 Exponential Functions

In this lab you'll start to use statistics as well as "eyeballing" your graphs to make decisions about which models fit better.

Download a copy of Lab04.nb too, which has all the STATISTICS functions you'll use.

Downloading the .nb files in Firefox:

1. Right-click and choose "Save link as"
2. Save it, on your desktop, for example,
3. Double-click on the file you've just saved to open in Mathematica

Feedback

It is easier to see the differences in the functions if you plot them all on the same graph. For example, with your functions... $$f_1(x)=3.00 (1.20)^x; \ f_2(x)=3.00 (1.21)^x; \ f_3(x)=3.01 (1.20)^x$$

Summary Exponential functions, $f(x)=ab^x$, are

• very sensitive to small changes in the growth rate ($b$),
• but not very sensitive to small changes in the $y$-intercept ($a$).