Examples of exponential growth in real life
There are many example of exponential growth in real life. As shown in the images below, examples of these are in bacterial growth patterns, money investment in a bank, exponential decay in nuclear explosions, population growth, and our cell growth.
Exponential growth helps us understand and predict the growth rates of things like the examples below. There are two main types of exponential patterns; exponential growth and exponential decay. Exponential decay is the opposite of growth, and rather than rapidly increasing, the pattern rapidly decreases.
Exponential growth helps us understand and predict the growth rates of things like the examples below. There are two main types of exponential patterns; exponential growth and exponential decay. Exponential decay is the opposite of growth, and rather than rapidly increasing, the pattern rapidly decreases.
Exponential growth with bacteria
Bacterial growth increases through the process of binary fission; the splitting of a bacteria. The more bacteria you have to start with, the more new bacteria will be made. Think of it this way: If I have 1 bacterium, it can split into 2. When I have 2, they split into 4. 4 splits into 8. The pattern is doubling each time! For example, if I had 3 bacteria, they would split into 6 bacteria. However, if I had 30 bacteria, they would split into 60. Exponential growth! Because scientists can identify the patterns and growth of bacteria, helping a lot in the medical field.
Nuclear Explosions
Unlike the other examples which include exponential growth, nuclear decay, or otherwise known as radioactive decay, nuclear explosions have an exponential decay pattern. After an nuclear blast, unstable atoms lose energy by emitting what's called ionizing radiation. Any material that emits this is considered radioactive. Exponential decay!
Population growth
Let's say you have 2 people. By 20 years there are 10 people total. If we imagine that this pattern of growth remains the same, then from the 10 people after 20 years we have 50 people. From those 50 people we have 250 people total. This is population growth! This is how a population expands. Check this website to see live results of the world population, including both births and deaths.
The making of our cells
The making of us is from the reproduction of our cells. What happens is when a cell, the "mother cell" grows and divides into 2 "daughter cells." Now we have 2 cells instead of 1. The growth of this is exponential, and the increase rate is doubling. We need our cells to reproduce exponentially, as many of our cells die every day. Did you know that by every 7-10 years, all the cells in our body will have been replaced with new ones, although our DNA remains the same? It's all through exponential growth.
Atmospheric Pressure
Another example of exponential decay is in atmospheric pressure. Atmospheric pressure decreases as you go higher, at about 12% for every 1000 meters : an exponential decay. So the rate of decay, or 'base' as we will look at later, is decreasing by 12%. Because of this pressure, it makes it difficult to breathe, and this is why airplanes need to have pressurized cabins.