Table of contentsClick link to navigate to the desired location
This content has been automatically translated from Ukrainian.
Exponential growth is the process where the quantity increases exponentially. In other words, each subsequent step increases the result several times from the previous one.
Such growth is often found in computer algorithms, finance, or biology. For example, if the number of options doubles at each step, after a few steps they become a huge number, which is difficult to process.
Simple Ruby code to demonstrate:
# Exponential growth
base = 2 # multiplier
steps = 10 # number of steps
value = 1 # initial value
puts "Step - Value"
steps.times do |i|
puts "#{i + 1} - #{value}"
value *= base
end
The result will be:
Step - Value 1 - 1 2 - 2 3 - 4 4 - 8 5 - 16 6 - 32 7 - 64 8 - 128 9 - 256 10 - 512 => 10
This script shows how the initial value of 1 increases rapidly at multiplier 2. The result demonstrates why exponential growth very quickly goes beyond computable numbers.
Real-life examples:
- Technologies: The number of transistors in processors increases by Moore's law, roughly doubling every 2 years.
- Finance: compound interest, when investment grows exponentially due to interest re-accrual.
- Biology: bacterial multiplication under favourable conditions, where each bacterium divides into two after a certain period of time.
- Social networks: sharing information or viral videos where each user shares content with several friends.
This post doesn't have any additions from the author yet.
