Exponential Graphs
Exponential graphs are those of the form for positive a. You can sketch the graph of
for positive a by considering the
coordinates that correspond to various
values. Graphs of this form will always cross the
-axis at 1 since
for any
.
The following table shows coordinates for the graph for
taking integer values between -3 and 3:
x | -3 | -2 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
y | 0.125 | 0.25 | 0.5 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 8 |
It follows that the graph of for
will have a shape like
.
The graph of for
will have a shape like the graph above but will be reflected in the
-axis. This is because when you multiply a number less than 1 by itself, it becomes smaller.
The following table shows coordinates for the graph for
taking integer values between -3 and 3:
x | -3 | -2 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
y | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.25 | 0.125 |
For any number , the graph will have the same shape as
.
For , the graph of
is the horizontal line
. This is because you are calculating 1 to any power, which is always 1. For negative a, fractional powers become an issue and complex numbers need to be considered.
The diagram shows the graph of where
, sometimes known as Euler’s number, is given by
… Since
is positive and greater than 1, it looks very similar to the first graph above.
The number is special because everywhere on this graph, the gradient is the same as the
-coordinate. See differentiating
to the
.
Logarithmic Graphs
As well as exponential graphs, there are logarithmic graphs. is considered to be the inverse of
– see more on logs. It follows that
(blue solid line) is the inverse of
(red dotted line) and so their graphs are reflections of each other in the line
(green dotted line). Since
and
are mathematical inverses we have that
.
Specifically, the natural logarithm is the logarithm that corresponds to . That is, given an equation of the form
, it can be said that
. Since
is a special number, log to the base
has its own name. That is, it is the natural logarithm and often called
so
is more often written as
.
and
are mathematical inverses and we have that
. Notice that
for any positive
(including
) cannot be evaluated for negative
– see more on logs.
Estimating Parameters
Estimating Parameters for
Consider the equation . Note that, according to BIDMAS, this is
to the power of
, then multiplied by
. This is a stretch to a standard polynomial curve – see Curve Sketching. Given this relationship and a dataset that approximately fits it, it is possible to estimate the parameters
and
. First consider what happens when logging both sides:
Note that the bases are missing this is true for any base (provided the same base is used for both). In the same way that you can plot y against , it is possible to plot
against
. Recall that, in the equation
,
is the gradient and
is the
-intercept. In addition, we can write
as
and so, in the plot of
against
,
is the gradient and
is the
-intercept.
Estimating Parameters for
Now consider the equation . Like the above, this is an exponential curve, provided
is positive. Similarly to before, given a dataset or similar, we could estimate the parameters
and
. Taking logs:
It follows that can be written as
and so, this time, in the plot of
against
,
is the gradient and
is the
-intercept.
Examples
Extra Resources
Graphing Logarithmic Functions