Answer:
See Below.
Step-by-step explanation:
We have the function:
Depending on the behavior of the coefficient, many things can happen. The parent exponential function has a=1. If a is something other than 1, however, there are three main changes.
Let’s use b=2 to illustrated the examples.
(In the graphed examples, below, the parent function (with b=2) is the red curve.)
- If <em>a</em> is a positive, rational number greater than 1.
If a is a positive number other than 1, say 2, then this represents a vertical stretch.
In other words, our function is stretched closer to the y-axis.
(This is the blue curve. It is closer to the y-axis than the parent function (red curve).)
- If <em>a</em> is a positive, rational number greater than 0 but less than 1.
If a is a number between 0 and 1 (so a fraction), say, 1/2, then this represents vertical compression.
In other words, our function gets farther away from the y-axis.
(This is the black curve.)
- If <em>a </em>is a negative.
If a is <em>negative</em>, then this means that the graph was flipped over the x-axis.
(This is the green curve.)
Note that if we have something such as a=-2 or a=-1/2, this means that the function we flipped over the x-axis first and <em>then</em> vertically stretched or compressed.
(And example of this is illustrated with the orange curve).