Olivia S.

asked • 04/06/14

if you have 5% decrease what is the decay factor

I need help with math Im not sure how to find decay factor?

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Michael K. answered • 04/06/14

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Say that there is a very expensive dress that you want to purchase, but cannot afford.  However, for whatever reason, the price of the dress is being reduced by 5% each week.  So, if you wanted to buy the dress after one week, you would figure that the price is 95% of the original price.  After 2 weeks the price is 95% of the previous weeks price.  The decay factor is 0.95 because this is 95% as a decimal.  Just think of how much you need to make up 100% and convert to a decimal.  I'd be happy to explain more about how this relates to the exponential decay function y = a(1-b)^x, but I don't want to ramble on.
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Olivia S.

thank you so much for your help! I am just confused as to how the decay factor formula works when you only have one percent such as 5%.
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04/06/14

Michael K.

You're welcome, Olivia.  Check out the site to help answer your question, http://math.about.com/od/exponents/a/ExpDec2.htm
In the formula, (1-b) is the decay factor which in this problem is 1 - 0.05 = 0.95.  a is the original amount and x is time. Again, I'm going off of the link above.  You are probably using t for time.  y is the new amount.  As long as you have 3 pieces of information you can find the third.  For instance, you might need to plug in y, x, and b to find a if it is a working backwards type of problem.
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04/06/14

Parviz F.

Decay factor is just ( 1 -0. 05) = 0.95
 
  That is factor which decay take place.
 
   In one increment reduces to 0.95 , 2nd increment 0.95*2 if it is linear decay, if it is exponential after 2 time increment (0.95 * 0.95 ) =0.09025
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04/06/14

Colin M.

What is the percent of change for the decay factor of 0.173?
 
 
What is the percent of change for the growth factor of 1.29?
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03/19/16

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