How do you graph y=1.1(0.1)^x?

1 Answer
Aug 30, 2015

Note that the graph is exponentially decaying and find some points through which it goes, to find that it is very steep for negative values of x and very flat for positive values.

Explanation:

This graph is very steep for negative values of x and very flat for positive values of x, passing through the points:

(-2, 110), (-1, 11), (0, 1.1), (1, 0.11), (2, 0.01)

graph{1.1*(0.1)^x [-5.23, 4.77, -0.95, 4.05]}

Note that reversing the sign of x or replacing the 0.1 with 10 results in the mirror image graph:

graph{1.1*(10)^x [-5.23, 4.77, -0.95, 4.05]}

For practical purposes, it is often more useful to graph the common logarithm of the function instead,

log(y) = log(1.1(0.1)^x)) = log(1.1)+x log(0.1)

= log(1.1)-x ~~ 0.04139-x

graph{log(1.1(0.1)^x) [-2, 3, -1.12, 1.38]}

Graphing the log of the function is basically the same as graphing the original function on paper with a logarithmic vertical scale.