exponential curve
Sharply accelerating line
An exponential curve is a mathematical curve showing rapid acceleration—small at first, then shooting upward dramatically.
The term appears in discussions of population growth, compound interest, viral spread, and technology adoption.
In casual use, exponential often just means "a lot" or "very fast," though mathematicians distinguish exponential growth from merely rapid increase: The number of cases followed an exponential curve.
- growthIncrease in size
- growth rateSpeed of increase
- logarithmExponent-determining mathematical operation
- doublingMultiplying by two
- doubling timeTime to grow twofold
steep · steep climb · hockey stick · skyrocket · through the roof · off the charts · compound · compound interest · acceleration · explosion · viral · going viral · rapid spread · multiplying · asymptote · infinity · runaway · snowball
- curvesarc, curls, curl, bend, spiral
- statistical curvest-distribution, ogive, sigmoid
- statisticsmean, median, mode, variance, standard deviation
- graphsgraph, bar graph, line graph, pie chart, scatter plot
exponential curvestraight line
Undeviated continuous path
linear function · linear growth · flat line · horizontal line · steady state
exponential, exponent, exponents, exponentially, curve, curves, curved, curving, curvature