Precalculus AB Honors

8.2 Exponential Modeling

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Use the following information to complete the table.

The enrollment of SHP grows 3% every year. The current student body population is 650. Round
to the nearest whole person.

Time Enrollment
(years)
0

A population that grows at r% every year can be modeled with a ______________ function.

Write the formula for a Write the formula for a

population that starts at P0 and population that starts at P0 and
grows at r% every year. decreases at r% every year.

Write the formula for a Write the formula for a Write the formula for a
population that starts at P0 and population that starts at P0 and population that starts at P0 and
grows at r% every 2 years. grows at r% every 3 years. grows at r% twice a year.
 A population P0 that grows by r% every year can be modeled by the function P(t ) = P0 (1 + r ) t .

(t ) P0 (1 − r )t
A population P0 that decreases by r% every year can be modeled by the function P=

These are both exponential functions in the form of f ( x) = a ⋅ b x .

EX#1 Are the following population models exponential growth or exponential decay? What is
the percentage rate of change?
Menlo Park: P(t ) = 60, 735(1.0030)t Atherton: P(t ) = 7,177(0.9976)t

EX#2 If the population of a town in the midwest starts at 73,114 and decreases by 3.03% per
year, find the population model. What will the population be in 5 years?

EX#3 You found out a juicy piece of gossip at lunch the other day. You know you shouldn’t
spread rumors, but you just can’t help yourself … the next day, you tell 3 people. Those
three people model your bad behavior, and they each tell three people the next day…..
and that pattern continues. How many new people will hear the rumor seven days from
now?
 Changing frequency of growth/decay

If the growth/decay occurs every k units of time, the growth/decay function changes to

(t ) P0 (1 ± r )t / k
P=

EX#4 Lance is doing research in the biology lab, where the bacteria population grows by 30%
every 6 hours. If she starts out with 200 bacteria, when will he have 1,000?

a. Write an equation to solve this problem.

b. Solve this graphically on the calculator. Sketch your solution below and state the
window.

EX#5 Grace is going to do her own radioactive research in the chemistry lab. She starts out
with 100g of a radioactive substance whose half-life is 13 days.
a. Write an equation to represent the scenario. Define the variables clearly.

b. How much substance will be there after 1 year?