Page 21 - ADU Voice

SPRING 2023 · voice 21

now become a mark of success: “growing
exponentially”.

While reading a business page in a newspaper,
watching trending news on TV, or listening

to stocks updates on the radio, you are sure
to come across this phrase repeatedly: “XYZ
Company is growing exponentially”. Almost
every business article expresses the perfor-
mance of giant companies as “exponential”.
Now let me unfold the truth that is behind this
exponential growth.

The phrase exponential growth actually comes
from a mathematical function called “expo-
nential function”. Exponential functions are
used to predict the values of rapidly growing

or decaying variables, for instance, to estimate
human population of a country, population of
rabbits and mice, population of viruses and
bacteria that double, triple and quadruple
in microseconds and to calculate compound
interest as well as the decay of radioactive
substances. The spike in COVID-19 cases in
the UK was also estimated with the help of the

exponential function.

Math is not just about formulas and numbers.
There are so many other mathematical con-
cepts that are directly related to our real-life
situations. Therefore, it is the responsibility
of math teachers to relate all concepts to real-
world scenarios in order to spark the interest
of students in the subject. A possible solu-
tion could be inviting people from the
industry to share their experiences of
using mathematics in the workplace.

Lastly, I would like to encourage people
who are teaching and learning math-
ematics to relate its concepts to real
life situations. I assure them that their
future is bright, and that they will
“grow exponentially”.