5/27/2017 AlgebraExponentialFunctions

ExponentialFunctions
Letsstartoffthissectionwiththedefinitionofanexponentialfunction.

Ifbisanynumbersuchthat and thenanexponential
functionisafunctionintheform,

wherebiscalledthebaseandxcanbeanyrealnumber.

Noticethatthexisnowintheexponentandthebaseisafixednumber.Thisisexactlytheoppositefrom
whatweveseentothispoint.Tothispointthebasehasbeenthevariable,xinmostcases,andtheexponent
wasafixednumber.However,despitethesedifferencesthesefunctionsevaluateinexactlythesamewayas
thosethatweareusedto.Wewillseesomeexamplesofexponentialfunctionsshortly.

Beforewegettoofarintothissectionweshouldaddresstherestrictionsonb.Weavoidoneandzero
becauseinthiscasethefunctionwouldbe,

andtheseareconstantfunctionsandwonthavemanyofthesamepropertiesthatgeneralexponential
functionshave.

Next,weavoidnegativenumberssothatwedontgetanycomplexvaluesoutofthefunctionevaluation.
Forinstanceifweallowed thefunctionwouldbe,

andasyoucanseetherearesomefunctionevaluationsthatwillgivecomplexnumbers.Weonlywantreal
numberstoarisefromfunctionevaluationandsotomakesureofthiswerequirethatbnotbeanegative
number.

Now,letstakealookatacoupleofgraphs.Wewillbeabletogetmostofthepropertiesofexponential
functionsfromthesegraphs.

http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/Alg/ExpFunctions.aspx 1/1