1 Exponential and logarithmic functions

Exponential functions and logarithmic functions play important roles in almost

every science.
An exponential function refers to the situation where the variable of a func-
tion lies in the exponent. If the function value increases as the variable gets
larger, we call the function a model for exponential growth. Population growth
and compound interest are common applications of exponential growth models.
Exponential decay refers to the opposite scenario: the function value decreases
as the variable gets larger. We will discuss how carbon dating and Newton’s
law of cooling are both applications of exponential decay models.
Logarithm is the inverse function to exponentiation. Logarithmic functions
grow at a very slow rate and help define logarithmic scales. Logarithmic scales
are useful for quantifying the relative change of a value as opposed to the abso-
lute difference. Common measurements such as decibels, Richter scale, and pH
in chemistry all use logarithmic scales.
In this chapter, we will carefully motivate and define the language regarding
exponential and logarithmic functions. We will introduce some applications but
the backstory behind each application requires knowledge of calculus to fill in
the gaps and explain the models.

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1.1 Exponential functions
We start by looking at an example of exponential growth. The Fibonacci num-
bers, named after the Italian mathematician Fibonacci, are famous for their
strong relation with natural growth and the golden ratio.
Example 1. Fibonacci considers the growth of an idealized (biologically unre-
alistic) rabbit population, assuming that: a newly born breeding pair of rabbits
are put in a field; each breeding pair mates at the age of one month, and at
the end of their second month they always produce another pair of rabbits; and
rabbits never die, but continue breeding forever. Fibonacci posed the puzzle:
how many pairs will there be in one year?
At the end of the first month, the initial pair of rabbits is the only pair. At
the end of the second month, a second pair of rabbits is produced. The number
of pairs at the end of each month is given in the table below.

Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Pairs 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233

In one year, there will be 233 pairs of rabbits. If we leave them be, there
will be 75,025 pairs at the end of the second year and 24,157,817 pairs at the
end of the third year. The rabbit population quickly grow out of control in this
model. In fact, the Fibonacci numbers outgrow any polynomial function. The
Fibonacci numbers exhibit exponential growth but do not take the form of the
standard exponential function.
Definition 1. An exponential function is a function of the form

f (x) = bx

where b is a positive constant.

The variable x is in the exponent for exponential functions. Not to be
confused with power functions (e.g., x3 ) where the exponent is a constant and
the variable is in the base. Now is a good time to recall the Laws of Exponents.
Definition 2. Laws of Exponents:
If a and b are positive numbers and x and y are any real numbers, then
bx y
1. bx+y = bx by 2. bx−y = y 3. (bx ) = bxy 4. (ab)x = ax bx
b
In elementary algebra, the Laws of Exponents were only introduced for ra-
tional x and y. We will take a look at the exponential function f (x) = 2x and
fill in the gap regarding real numbers as exponents.
Example 2. Let f (x) = 2x . What does f (x) mean when x is not a positive
integer?

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 If x is a positive integer n, then

2n = 2 · 2 · · · · · 2 (n copies).

If x = 0, then b0 = 1. If x is a negative integer −n, then

1
2−n = .
2n
When x is a rational number p/q with q > 0,
√  √ p
2p/q = 2p or
q q
2 .

For the rest of the real numbers, because all of them can be approximated
by rational numbers, the value of 2x can be nested to a real value. For example,

23 < 2π < 24 , 23.1 < 2π < 23.2 , 23.14 < 2π < 23.15 , 23.141 < 2π < 23.142 , . . . .

An alternative description of the method above is invoking continuity of the

graph.

Figure 1.

The example above showcases exponential growth. For the exponential func-
tion f (x) = bx , it is strictly increasing whenever b > 1 and strictly decreasing
whenever 0 < b < 1 (remember that b is a positive constant). The function
is a constant function f (x) = 1 if b = 1. In many discussions of exponential
functions, people would often assume b 6= 1 since it is a trivial case. Let us take
a quick look at an example when 0 < b < 1.
Example 3. Let g(x) = (0.5)x . Compare the two exponential functions f (x) =
2x and g(x) = (0.5)x .

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 Let us first take a look at the table of values for f and g.

x -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
f (x) 0.125 0.25 0.5 1 2 4 8
g(x) 8 4 2 1 0.5 0.25 0.125

The symmetry in the table is no coincidence. Since 0.5 = 2−1 , we have the
following.
x
g(x) = (0.5)x = 2−1 = 2−x = f (−x)
The graph of the function g and the graph of the function f are symmetric
across the y-axis. The exponential function g(x) = (0.5)x exhibits exponential
decay.

Figure 2.

Notice that the graph of all exponential functions pass through the point
(0, 1). In modeling, the variable would represent time and the y-value corre-
sponding to x = 0 is called the initial value. In general, an exponential growth
model would be given by

f (x) = Abx , where A is a positive number, b > 1, and x is a real variable,

and an exponential decay model would be given by

f (x) = Abx , where A is a positive number, 0 < b < 1, and x is a real variable.

Example 4. Savings and interest. If $4000 is invested at 1.75% interest, find

the value of the investment at the end of 5 years if the interest is compounded
annually.

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 We can find the value at the end of every passing year using the formula
x
f (x) = 4000 (1 + 0.0175) ,
where x is the number of years after investment.
f (1) = 4070, f (2) = 4141.225, f (3) ≈ 4213.696, f (4) ≈ 4287.436, f (5) ≈ 4362.466
Therefore at the end of 5 years the value would reach approximately $4362.47.

Example 5. Strontium-90 has a half-life of 28 days. A sample has initial mass

50 mg. Find a formula for the mass remaining after t days.
The half-life is the amount of time the radioactive decay would reduce the
amount to half of the initial amount. The formula for the mass would be
  t
1 28
f (x) = 50 .
2
We can double check our answer by observing f (1) = 25 and f (2) = 12.5.
To wrap up this section, we will take a look at the graphs of members of
the family of functions y = f (x) = bx . We can see that the b value plays a role
similar to slope. The graph increases at a faster rate with larger values of b and
decreases at a faster rate with smaller values of b.

Figure 3.
For exponential functions with b 6= 1, the graph would always be asymptotic
to the x-axis in one direction and tend to infinity in the other direction. In
other words, the domain of any exponential function is R and the range would
be all positive numbers unless b = 1.

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1.2 Logarithmic functions
Recall that if b > 0 and b 6= 1, the exponential function f (x) = bx is either
strictly increasing or strictly decreasing with range being all positive numbers.
That means if you are given any positive number y, you would be able to find
the value of x so that bx = y. The inverse function of f , denoted with f −1 , is
called the logarithmic function with base b. The domain of f −1 is all positive
numbers and the range is all real numbers.
Definition 3. The logarithmic function with base b, b > 0 and b 6= 1, is denoted
by logb and it satisfies

g(y) = logb y = x ⇔ y = bx

The function g is the inverse of the function f (x) = bx .

Remark.
Most textbooks in calculus and the sciences, as well as calculators, use the no-
tation log x for ”common logarithm” log10 x and ln x for ”natural logarithm”
loge x. The constant e is called the Euler’s number.

To take a closer look at the logarithmic function with base b, it would require
a good understanding of the functions f (x) = bx . We will take a look at the
case b = 2 as a first example.
Example 6. Plot points and sketch the graph of g(x) = log2 x. Do the same
for log0.5 .
In previously introduced functions, we would often start by plugging in values
such as 0 or 1 into the function. In the case of logarithmic functions, since it
is defined by an inverse action, we would be solving for the x value when a y
value is given.

If g(x) = log2 x = 0 then x = 20 = 1, so we can plot the point (1, 0)

If g(x) = log2 x = 1 then x = 21 = 2, so we can plot the point (2, 1)

If g(x) = log2 x = 2 then x = 22 = 4, so we can plot the point (4, 2)
Due to the fact that exponential functions have only positive values, the domain
of g does not include zero or negative numbers. The range does include negative
numbers so we can plot them in a similar fashion.

If g(x) = log2 x = −1 then x = 2−1 = 0.5, so we can plot the point (0.5, −1)

If g(x) = log2 x = −2 then x = 2−2 = 0.25, so we can plot the point (0.25, −2)
The graph of g would be symmetric to the graph of f (x) = 2x because of them
being the inverse function to each other.

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Figure 4.

If we consider the logarithmic function h(x) = log0.5 x, we would notice that

the points we plot seem symmetric to the graph of g. We would be able to show
g(x) = −h(x) later in this section.

Figure 5.

From the properties of inverse functions, we know that the graph of any
logarithmic function would be asymptotic to the y-axis. The function g(x) =
logb x would be strictly increasing if b > 1 and strictly decreasing if 0 < b < 1.
Logarithmic functions with a larger b value increase at a slower rate, but still
grow to infinity eventually.

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Figure 6.
It is useful to list a few identities for logarithmic functions. We can derive
these from the definition of logarithmic functions.

logb b0 = logb (1) = 0, blogb 1 = b0 = 1

are the unit identities and

logb (bx ) = x for all real x, blogb x = x for all positive x

are the general form. The Laws of Exponents can be used to generate a similar
set of rules for logarithms.
Definition 4. Laws of Logarithms:
If x and y are positive numbers and r is  anyreal number, then
x
1. logb (xy) = logb x + logb y 2. logb = logb x − logb y 3. logb (xr ) =
y
r logb x
With the identities above, we can write any positive number x as blogb x and
any positive number y as blogb y . Then we can see that

xy = blogb x blogb y = blogb x+logb y .

Hence logb (xy) = logb x + logb y. The other two laws can be shown in a similar
fashion.
The Laws of Logarithms are useful in converting logarithmic expressions into
equivalent expressions. Sometimes combining the terms into a single logarithm
is helpful and sometimes separating a complicated logarithm into smaller pieces
is the better choice. There is no hard fast rule as to how a logarithmic expression
should be simplified.

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Example 7. Use the Laws of Logarithms to combine
1
2 log4 x + 5 log4 y − log4 z
2
into a single logarithm.
First we need to deal with the coefficients. This is because the sum law and
the difference law all have coefficients equal to 1 in front of all terms.
1  1
2 log4 x + 5 log4 y − log4 z = log4 x2 + log4 y 5 − log4 z 2



2
The next step would be using the sum/difference laws.
 2 5
2

5

 1
2 5

√
x y
log4 x + log4 y − log4 z 2 = log4 x y − log4 z = log4 √
z

Example 8. Solve the equation 71−x = 43x+1 .

We can take the logarithm of both sides to convert the equation into a linear
one.
71−x = 43x+1 ⇒ log7 71−x = log7 43x+1 ⇒ 1 − x = (3x + 1) log7 4
Solving a linear equation would not be a problem. Just need to remember that
log7 4 is a constant.
1 − log7 4
1 − x = (3x + 1) log7 4 ⇒ (3 log7 4 + 1)x = 1 − log7 4 ⇒ x =
3 log7 4 + 1
An important reminder is that your answer may look different if you choose a
different base to take the logarithm. Rest assured that the answers look different
but are all the same.
Logarithmic functions with different bases are related via the ”Change of
Base Formula.” This formula is especially helpful in generating a standardized
expression. Two widely used choices of the standardized logarithmic base would
be base 10, common logarithm log x, and base e, natural logarithm ln x. We
will see more of both in applications.
Definition 5. Change of Base Formula:
For any positive numbers a and b with a 6= 1, b 6= 1, we have
loga x
logb x = or loga x = (loga b) (logb x) .
loga b
We know that
b = aloga b and x = blogb x .
If we consider writing x as a power of a, then we get

logb x
x = blogb x = aloga b = a(loga b)(logb x) ⇒ loga x = (loga b) (logb x) ,
which is the Change of Base Formula.

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Example 9. Solve the equation log0.5 x − log4 x2 = 3.
We would use the change of base formula here to convert everything to the
same base. In this example we can choose to use base 2 as the common base.

log2 x log2 x2 log2 x log2 x2

log0.5 x − log4 x2 = − = −
log2 0.5 log2 4 −1 2

We can now solve the equation.

 
2 1 1 1
log0.5 x − log4 x = 3 ⇒ log2 =3 ⇒ =8 ⇒ x= √
x2 x2 2 2
Note that x cannot be negative from the original equation.

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