The Exponential Decay of Skittles

DO NOT EAT THE SKITTLES UNTIL INSTRUCTED

Start with all of your candies. Count them and record this number as trial 0. Place your skittles in
the cup. Next empty your skittles on to the paper plate provided. If the S is showing, place
them back in the cup. If the S is not showing, place them to the side. Empty the remaining
candies onto the plate and repeat the steps above until you have fewer than five skittles but more
than zero skittles.

Trail

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Skittles



Now that you have completed your table sketch a graph on the grid provided with the data you
have collected. Be sure to label your axis and start your scale at zero.


DO NOT EAT THE SKITTLES UNTIL INSTRUCTED
Questions:

Describe the relationship that exists between x and y. As the value of x increases, the value of y
_____________________. This rate of _____________________ [increase / decrease] becomes
_____________________ [greater / less] as values of x increase.

The function that models this experiment is ...
Exponential Decay

= initial amount of Skittles
= decay rate (probability of an S)
= trial

What is the value of in your Skittles decay experiment? _________________
What is the value of in your Skittles decay experiment?_________________
Based on these values, what is the theoretical decay function for your Skittles experiment?



Using the function above complete the chart.
Trial Number of Skittles
2
5
6
7

How does this chart compare to the chart you completed when doing the decay trials yourself?



The Exponential Growth of Skittles
DO NOT EAT THE SKITTLES UNTIL INSTRUCTED
Start with five of your skittles. Record this number as trial 0. Place your skittles in the cup. Next
empty your skittles on to the paper plate provided. For every S that is not showing add another
skittle to the cup. If the S is showing just place them back in the cup. Empty the candies onto
the plate and repeat the steps above until you have reached 10 trials or your skittles are gone.

Trail

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Skittles



Now that you have completed your table sketch a graph on the grid provided with the data you
have collected. Be sure to label your axis and start your scale at zero.


Questions:

Describe the relationship that exists between x and y. As the value of x increases, the value of y
___________________. This rate of __________________ [increase / decrease] becomes
___________________ [greater / less] as values of x increase.

The function that models this experiment is ...
Exponential Growth

= initial amount of Skittles
= decay rate (probability of an S)
= trial

What is the value of in your Skittles growth experiment? _________________
What is the value of in your Skittles growth experiment?_________________
Based on these values, what is the theoretical growth function for your Skittles experiment?



Using the function abovecomplete the chart.
Trial Number of Skittles
2
5
6
7

How does this chart compare to the chart you completed when doing the growth trials yourself?



You may now eat the skittles.