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A Deeper Look at Exponential Functions

In this lesson, you will revisit a familiar function family – the exponential function.  You will review your prior understanding of this function family to find a curve of best fit for real-world data.

Let’s begin with a simple data set.

image of khalid and a bottle of milkKhalid wants to study the rate at which a certain bacteria grows in a closed container of milk. Khalid records the number of bacteria that are present in a closed container of milk every five minutes for a period of 25 minutes. The data collected is below.

Time (minutes)

0

5

10

15

20

25

Number of Bacteria

30

34

40

45

52

60


Create and Analyze

Create a scatter plot and determine which function type may be the best fit for the data set, using the Shodor Applet opens in new window or using your graphing calculator. Visit the Calculator Resources section for information about how to use your calculator and alternative calculator resources for accessibility.

 

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