[TexasGator]

“These days, “exponentially” is used to denote “a lot” — anything from “increased 20%” to “a million times”. It’s become meaningless.”

Not really.

[coloradan]

It increased by 10^log(3). You know, “exponentially”.

[dayglored]

>> “These days, “exponentially” is used to denote “a lot” — anything from “increased 20%” to “a million times”. It’s become meaningless.”

> Not really.

Ah, okay, okay, let me clarify.

As used by the media, politicians, and other salespeople, "exponential" has in recent years been applied liberally to any increase that the speaker wishes to claim is large and/or impressive. Could be 20%, could be 5 orders of magnitude. This usage is completely divorced from its mathematical meaning.

Those of us who were educated in math (I count myself in that cohort, having a BS in Physics, which requires some pretty advanced math skills) still use "exponential" in its proper sense, a function that involves a power (often a power of 10 or e), rather than a multiplicative or additive factor.

Happy?