Ernest has been tracking the value of his car every year since he bought it.

Year 0 1 2 3
Car value ($) 30,000 27,000 24,300 21,870
Complete the sentence.

Ernest should use
function to model the value of his car because the
successive car values is constant.

3 answers

Ernest should use an exponential decay function to model the value of his car because the percentage decrease in successive car values is constant.

To clarify, while the actual dollar amounts decrease each year, the percentage decrease from year to year remains consistent, indicating a multiplicative relationship typical of exponential decay.

Determine whether each situation would be better modeled by a linear function or an exponential function.

daycare for nancys toddler costs $215 per week

the value of francos car decreases by 8% annually

The number of downloads of a new mobile game doubles every month

caleb pays %12 per month for a musci streaming service

Let's analyze each situation:

  1. Daycare for Nancy's toddler costs $215 per week:
    This situation would be better modeled by a linear function. The cost remains constant at $215 per week, leading to a consistent total cost as weeks progress.

  2. The value of Franco's car decreases by 8% annually:
    This situation would be better modeled by an exponential function. The value of the car decreases by a percentage of its current value every year, which represents exponential decay.

  3. The number of downloads of a new mobile game doubles every month:
    This situation would be better modeled by an exponential function. The growth in downloads is multiplicative, as the number of downloads increases by a factor (doubles) every month.

  4. Caleb pays $12 per month for a music streaming service:
    This situation would be better modeled by a linear function. The cost is constant at $12 per month, leading to a straight-line increase as months pass.

Summary:

  • Daycare cost: Linear function
  • Car value decrease: Exponential function
  • Game downloads: Exponential function
  • Music streaming service cost: Linear function