Question

How are exponential growth and decay present in the real world? Give at least 2 examples for exponential growth and 2 examples of exponential decay.

Answer 1

Radioactive material decays over a long period of time
with half lives and you can use exponential decay to find the decay of the radioactive substanceAnother example is during the NCAA tournament in March. The tournament starts with 68 schools and half of the teams are eliminated each round. You can find out using exponential decay how many teams would be left after a certain number of rounds.
When it comes to exponential growth it is not as easy to calculate according to the video but one thing that has exponential growth is the bacteria on food left out at a pinic during the summer. The food might still look good but, with the temperature outside and the bugs that food is a breeding ground for bacteria.
Another example of exponential growth is the spreading of a virus in a population. The exponential growth of the virus of small pox years ago and then the chicken pox virus spreading in a school. The exponential growth is used to estimate how much of the population will contract the virus.