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This is the form of the equation that is most commonly used to describe exponential decay. Any one of decay constant, mean lifetime, or half-life is sufficient to characterise the decay. The notation λ for the decay constant is a remnant of the usual notation for an eigenvalue .
Half-life (symbol t½) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable atoms survive. The term is also used more generally to characterize any type of exponential (or, rarely ...
Exponential growth. Exponential growth is a process that increases quantity over time at an ever-increasing rate. It occurs when the instantaneous rate of change (that is, the derivative) of a quantity with respect to time is proportional to the quantity itself. Described as a function, a quantity undergoing exponential growth is an exponential ...
To the right is the long tail, and to the left are the few that dominate (also known as the 80–20 rule ). In statistics, a power law is a functional relationship between two quantities, where a relative change in one quantity results in a relative change in the other quantity proportional to a power of the change, independent of the initial ...
Exponential functions with bases 2 and 1/2. The exponential function is a mathematical function denoted by () = or (where the argument x is written as an exponent).Unless otherwise specified, the term generally refers to the positive-valued function of a real variable, although it can be extended to the complex numbers or generalized to other mathematical objects like matrices or Lie algebras.
This behavior is referred to as a "decaying" exponential function. The time τ (tau) is referred to as the "time constant" and can be used (as in this case) to indicate how rapidly an exponential function decays. Here: t is time (generally t > 0 in control engineering) V 0 is the initial value (see "specific cases" below). Specific cases
Particle decay is a Poisson process, and hence the probability that a particle survives for time t before decaying (the survival function) is given by an exponential distribution whose time constant depends on the particle's velocity: = where
Relaxation (physics) In the physical sciences, relaxation usually means the return of a perturbed system into equilibrium . Each relaxation process can be categorized by a relaxation time τ. The simplest theoretical description of relaxation as function of time t is an exponential law exp (−t/τ) ( exponential decay ).