By the time you have completed this section you should be able to:

* Understand what it means to allow arbitrary real values as exponents
* Become familiar with the basic shapes of simple exponential graphs
* Combine this knowledge with skills from earlier units to graph more complicated exponential functions
* Develop equation solving skills based on laws of exponents and the one-to-one property of simple exponential functions
* Recognize applied situations involving exponential functions and use the new skills to solve problems arising from such situations