Equal Amounts, Equal Factors

You'll learnto tell a linear table from an exponential one, and to read the two numbers in a · b^x without swapping their jobs.

Two tables of numbers, and both columns climb. Listen to how they climb and the two of them turn out to be running different laws: one adds the same amount between rows, the other multiplies by the same factor. This story teaches the two tests that tell them apart, the two numbers in the exponential model, and the moment a line with a huge head start loses the race for good. Twelve short steps; press Next for each one.

12 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · f(x) = a + dx · f(x) = a · b^x · v3

equal amounts make a line · equal factors make a curve

Before you start

What you're looking at

Two tables sampled at the same evenly spaced inputs, then the same two functions drawn on one pair of axes.

The question

Between equal input steps, is the output changing by a fixed amount or by a fixed factor?

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