Eli5: Why are exponents so common in scientific formulas? Why is it so common that numbers in nature are multiplied by themselves?
In: Mathematics
Some numbers affect a situation in two different ways.
Quick example, when you drop something its fall distance is 1/2at^2.
Time is squared because there are two ways it increases the fall distance: more time means the object is able to cover more distance, *and* more time means the object is able to pick up more speed from gravitational acceleration.
Second example, the light you get from a source is proportional to 1/d^2. The distance “counts twice” because the light is getting more spread out horizontally, and also more spread out vertically. As you get further away it’s like you’re taking the same amount of light and “spreading it thinner” over a bigger and bigger area.
It isn’t obvious to me how to do an explanation like that for every polynomial term, but…there probably is if you really know your shit and are really creative.
Latest Answers