A local newspaper claims that the number of flu cases is increasing exponentially. On Monday, there were 8 flu cases reported. On Tuesday, there were 12 flu cases and on Wednesday there were 24 cases reported. On Thursday, there were 30 flu cases. Was the newspaper's claim of exponential increase accurate?

No, it's not an exponential increase.

Explanation:

Given the following data;

Monday = 8 flu cases.

Tuesday = 12 flu cases.

Wednesday = 24 flu cases.

Thursday = 30 flu cases.

An exponential increase has a constant ratio of proportion such as 2, 4, 16, 256, etc.

To determine if the increase is exponential, we would find the ratio of each successive reports

Tuesday : Monday = 12/8 = 1.5

Wednesday : Tuesday = 24/12 = 2

Thursday : Wednesday = 30/24 = 1.25

From the above calculations, we can deduce that the ratio of increase isn't constant. Therefore, the newspaper's claim of an exponential increase is incorrect and not accurate.

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