Is f(x)=x^2 an exponential function?

1 Answer
Gió
May 28, 2015

Well, no...this is power called a quadratic.
There is a slight but very important difference between the power and the exponential that concerns the "position" of x;
Power: the x is...at the ground floor and the number, say a, in the attic!
x^a
Exponential: the other way round; now x is in the attic and the number at the ground floor:
a^x
Seems trivial but have a look:
y=x^2
graph{x^2 [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

y=2^x
graph{2^x [-11.39, 11.11, -2.61, 8.64]}

And compare values:
enter image source here

Would you like your salary be modelled by a quadratic or exponential??? :-)

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