Population Growth

The purpose of this activity is to help students to understand that the existence of a Natural Base is a consequence of the properties of the power functions.

Students will explore a real life application: Population Growth. Using a graphing calculator to display population data, students will use the calculator’s regression capabilities to fit an equation for these data. Using the calculator capabilities again, students will find that any exponential function can be expressed as the power of an exponential parent function that was called by its discoverers the natural base.

By the end of this activity students will:

- Understand the role of the Natural Base within the exponential functions

- Understand the advantages of using a Natural Base

- Understand that real life problems having an exponential behavior can be modelled using the Exponential Natural Base