Complete the table for the function y=2^x

x y
–1
0
1
2

Now, graph the function.
Plot two points to graph the function.

1 answer

To complete the table for the function \( y = 2^x \), we can substitute the given values of \( x \) into the function.

Let's calculate the values:

  • For \( x = -1 \): \[ y = 2^{-1} = \frac{1}{2} = 0.5 \]

  • For \( x = 0 \): \[ y = 2^0 = 1 \]

  • For \( x = 1 \): \[ y = 2^1 = 2 \]

  • For \( x = 2 \): \[ y = 2^2 = 4 \]

Now, we can complete the table:

\[ \begin{array}{|c|c|} \hline x & y \ \hline -1 & 0.5 \ 0 & 1 \ 1 & 2 \ 2 & 4 \ \hline \end{array} \]

Points to Plot

The two points we can plot from our table are:

  1. \( (-1, 0.5) \)
  2. \( (2, 4) \)

Graphing the function

To graph the function \( y = 2^x \), we can plot these points on a coordinate system and draw a smooth curve that represents the exponential growth.

  1. Point (-1, 0.5): This is located to the left of the y-axis just above the x-axis.
  2. Point (2, 4): This point is located to the right of the y-axis and above the fourth unit on the y-axis.

As the x values increase, \( y = 2^x \) rises rapidly, leading to a steep upward curve. The function approaches but never touches the x-axis as \( x \) decreases (indicating it approaches 0 but is never negative).

Summary of the Graph

The graph of the function starts from just above the x-axis on the left (at \( x = -1, y = 0.5 \)) and rises sharply as \( x \) increases, going through the point \( (2, 4) \).

You can plot these points on graph paper or using graphing software to visualize the exponential growth of the function \( y = 2^x \).