Decide whether each situation describes a quadratic, exponential, or logarithmic function.
1 The Richter Scale is measures the energy released by an earthquake. A magnitude 4 earthquake is 100 times more powerful as a magnitude 3 earthquake, which is 10 times as powerful as a magnitude 2 earthquake.
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2 A car accelerates at a constant rate of 5mph/s.
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3 The population of a colony of bacteria can double every 20 minutes, as long as there is enough space and food.
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4 Benjamin Franklin set aside $4,400 in a savings account for the city of Philadelphia, knowing that the account would gain interest each year. 200 years later, the account was worth $1.625 million dollars!
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5 Moore’s law says that the number of transistors in a microprocessor will double roughly every 1.5 years. How many years will it take for the number of transistors in today’s processors to increase by 100x?
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6 As the width of a yard increases, the area of the yard increases much faster.
7 What explanation would you give to someone else, to help them identify which tables show exponential growth and which show logarithmic growth? |
These materials were developed partly through support of the National Science Foundation, (awards 1042210, 1535276, 1648684, 1738598, 2031479, and 1501927). 
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