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Old 01-23-2014, 01:30 PM   #47
chrisl
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Quote:
Originally Posted by strat61caster View Post
Uh X^2 is exponential as well as quadratic.

A square is a rectangle but not all rectangles are squares.
Technically, no, it isn't. Exponential means that it is of the form k^x, where k is some constant. Quadratic is a special case of polynomial, which is of the form k0 + k1*x + k2*x^2+k3*x^3+...+kn*x^n (where k0, k1, k2... are constants). Exponentials grow much faster than polynomials (in the limit as x --> inf), which is why I said quadratic drag is quite a bit better than if it were to increase exponentially.

http://www.knewance.com/comparisons/...ic-growth.html
http://www.math.ucla.edu/~bnelson6/E...ial_Growth.pdf

(and as I said before, I know I'm being pedantic, but I can't help it on technical topics, since I'm an engineer...)
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