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Zero Exponent: a0 = 1.
1
Integer Exponent: an = , where n = 1, 2, 3, . . .
an
p
q
Rational Exponent: a q = ap , where q = 1, 2, 3, . . ., and p = 0, 1, 2, 3, . . ..
After doing this for all the irrational numbers, this essentially this fills in the gaps in the graph
above to give the following:
Properties of f (x) = ax :
Only consider positive bases: (a > 0).
I a = 1 is a special (degenerate) case: constant function.
Always positive: ax > 0, for all x
I Range: y > 0
Exponent rules:
1 axxay = ax+y
a
2 = axy
ayx y
3 (a ) = axy
4 ax b x = (ab)x
Domain: x R
Range: y > 0
lim ax = 0
x
lim ax =
x
Domain: x R
Range: y > 0
lim ax =
x
lim ax = 0
x
e = lim (1 + x)1/x
x0
e 2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724709369995 . . .
e is irrational.
Important in calculus.
Consider the function f (x) = ax and a tangent line at the point (0, 1).
Question
What base has the property that at the point (0, 1) the slope of the tangent line is one?
It turns out that when the base is e, the slope of the tangent line is exactly equal to one!
A(t) = A0 (1 + r )t .
However, usually interest is compounded more frequently, say, compounded n times a year.
r
This means that an interest rate of is applied over each of n equal time intervals that
n
make up one year.
According to this definition, after t years our investment is worth
r nt
A(t) = A0 1 + .
n