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The Exponential Monster

How tall will one of these monsters be 6 hours and 30 minutes after it's born?

That'st = 6.5...

h( t ) = 2^( t )

h( 6.5 ) = 2^( 6.5 ) = approximately 90.5

After 6.5 hours, the monster will be about 90.5 feet tall.

(I'm sure you can only imagine the amount of drool something that big would produce...  And how hungry it would be!)

YOUR TURN:

How tall would the monster be 4.7  hours after birth?

 

How tall would the monster be 3.2 hours after birth?

By the way, this thing

h( t ) = 2^( t )

is called an "exponential" since the variable is up in the exponent.

                                     h( t ) = 2^( t ) ... The 2 is called the "base."

Before this, we were working with guys like

f( x ) = x^( 2 )

where the variable is downstairs in the base.