Name ______________________
Precalc Lesson 3.1 Homework
1. Identify whether each scenario represents exponential growth, exponential decay, or
neither. Give a reason for your answer.
a. The volume of a cube as the side length grows.
b. The price of a shirt with a 40% off coupon.
c. The reselling value of a car based on its age in years.
2. The number of students enrolled at a certain university increases by 3% each year. In 2010,
the university has 27,360 students enrolled. Write an equation for a function n(t) that
models the number of enrollments per year, where t is the time in years since 2010.
3. Determine if each equation represents exponential growth, exponential decay, or neither.
Give a reason for your answer.
a. y = 3 ⋅ 4.25x
b. y = 3x4 − 5
x
c. y = −2 ( 4 )
3
d. y = 5(0.28)x
4. Selected values of an exponential function, f , are given in the table. Complete the rest of
the table.
x 0 1 2 3 4 5
f (x) 24 36
5. An exponential function of the form y = abx passes through (2, 40) and (5, 5). Find the
value of a and b.
6. Initially a company sends a weekly newsletter to 65 people. Two weeks after this launch,
the company sends the weekly newsletter to 75 people.
a. Assuming that the number of people receiving the newsletter each week increases
linearly, write an equation for a function R(t) that gives the number of people the
company would send out the newsletter to t weeks after the launch.
b. Assuming that the number of people receiving the newsletter each week increases
exponentially, write an equation for a function N (t) that gives the approximate number
of people the company would send out the newsletter to t weeks after the launch.
c. Which model do you think is more accurate? Explain.
7. Is the relationship linear, exponential, or neither? Explain.
a. x −3 0 3 6
y 10 20 40 80
b. x −5 −1 2 6
y 9 3 −1.5 −7.5
c. x 0 2 3 5
y 100 36 21.6 7.776
8. A new Ford Escape is valued at $26,010 but depreciates by 8% each year. Write, but do
not evaluate, an expression that gives the value of the Ford Escape after 7 years.
9. The amount of ibuprofen, in mg, remaining in an adult’s bloodstream after taking one dose
can be modeled by P (t) = 400(0.71)t where t is the time in hours since taking the
ibuprofen.
a. How many mg of ibuprofen are in one adult dose? How do you know?
b. What percent of the ibuprofen is eliminated each hour? How do you know?
10. Duska drinks a 12-ounce cup of coffee that has 142 milligrams of caffeine in it. After 1 hour
she has approximately 126.4 mg of caffeine left in her body. The amount of caffeine in her
blood stream changes by a constant factor each hour.
a. Does this situation model exponential growth or decay? Explain.
b. What percentage of the caffeine remains in her bloodstream each hour?
c. Write an equation for a function, c(t), that gives the approximate number of milligrams
of caffeine in her body after t hours.
