Description: Exponential growth and decay model. The derivative of a functiony of variablet equals a constantk timesy itself, iffy equals some constantC times the exponential ofkt. This theorem and expgrowthi illustrate one of the simplest and most crucial classes of differential equations, equations that relate functions to their derivatives.
Section 6.3 of Strang p. 242 callsy' =ky "the most important differential equation in applied mathematics". In the field of population ecology it is known as theMalthusian growth model or exponential law, andC,k, andt correspond to initial population size, growth rate, and time respectively ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_growth_model ); and in finance, the model appears in a similar role incontinuous compounding withC as the initial amount of money. Inexponential decay models, k is often expressed as the negative of a positive constant λ.
Herey' is given as ( SD Y ) , C_ as c , andky as ( ( S X. { K } ) oF x. Y ) . ( S X. { K } ) is the constant function that maps any real or complex input tok and oF x. is multiplication as a function operation.
The leftward direction of the biconditional is as given in http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/MA221-2.1.1.pdf pp. 1-2, which also notes the reverse direction ("While we will not prove this here, it turns out that these are the only functions that satisfy this equation."). The rightward direction is Theorem 5.1 of LarsonHostetlerEdwards p. 375 (which notes "C is theinitial value ofy, andk is theproportionality constant.Exponential growth occurs whenk > 0, andexponential decay occurs whenk < 0."); its proof here closely follows the proof ofy' =y in https://proofwiki.org/wiki/Exponential_Growth_Equation/Special_Case .
Statements for this and expgrowthi formulated by Mario Carneiro. (Contributed by Steve Rodriguez, 24-Nov-2015)
Ref | Expression | ||
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Hypotheses | expgrowth.s | |
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expgrowth.k | |
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expgrowth.y | |
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expgrowth.dy | |
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Assertion | expgrowth | |