Why use 2^T on Y axis?

[Cam]

Hey gang,

Sorry for what might be a silly question but I just can’t understand the use of an exponent on the measurement of the Y axis. What does it mean?

In the examples Ben uses 2^T but I can’t understand the use cases for it. Was it something to do with the explanation earlier of it being shorthand, like with ms^-1?

[garypettie]

Hi Cam,
In this case, the horizontal axis has been relabeled to represent time (t) and the vertical axis has been relabeled to represent the equation 2^t.
2^t is just an equation that tells us how our values should change based on the value of the horizontal axis and this relationship between the two axes allows us to plots the growth curve on our graph

When we change this to 3^t, we have a new relationship and the curve that we plot on the graph changes.

We cover this in a bit more detail in “Plotting Graphs” in the next section of the course and we also look at plotting other functions too.

[Cam]

Thanks, Gary. I’ll put my faith in it making sense later when it’s touched on again! (Sorry for the late reply too, I don’t seem to be getting emails to say there’s been a reply.)